The Supreme Court has fixed August 5 as the date to hear a plea for an independent probe by its sitting or retired judge into the alleged Pegasus snooping scandal.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant would consider the petitions filed by advocate M L Sharma, CPI-M MP from Rajya Sabha John Brittas and eminent journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar.
The alleged snooping of journalists, opposition leaders and other people had rocked the Parliament.
In their plea, the journalists claimed that the act of snooping amounted to "cyber-terrorism", having an obvious chilling effect on freedom of speech and expression by threatening invasion into the most core and private aspects of a person's life.
The plea sought a direction to the Centre to disclose if the government or any of its agencies obtained license for Pegasus spyware and used it, either directly or indirectly, to conduct surveillance in any manner.
In his PIL, Brittas said the recent Pegasus snooping allegations were causing huge apprehensions and great agony for the citizens as it violated freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) as well as personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. Only a proper court monitored investigation can alleviate these apprehensions and agonies, the plea by Brittas, senior journalist and managing director of Kairali TV, added.
Sharma, in his plea, maintained that Pegasus is not just a surveillance tool but a cyber weapon unleashed on Indian polity.
"The Supreme Court could force the government to come clean on the narrow issue of the use of Pegasus in India, or the existence of NSO contracts," his plea said.
(Published 01 August 2021, 14:55 IST)
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