'This is not the way to file PIL', SC tells advocate for naming PM Modi as party in Pegasus case

The court sought to know from Sharma as to what materials he relied upon other than the newspapers clippings to file his PIL

The Supreme Court on Thursday told advocate M L Sharma that he can't make Prime Minister Narendra Modi as respondent in his petition for a court monitored SIT probe into the Pegasus snooping scandal.

“You have included certain individuals (prime minister as respondent in the petition)….we can’t issue notice like this. Don’t try to take advantage of things…you have defective memo of parties," a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant told the advocate-petitioner.

The court also sought to know from him as to what materials he relied upon other than the newspapers clippings to file his PIL.

“This is not the way to file a PIL, where is the material other than paper cuttings,” the bench asked the advocate-petitioner.

Sharma maintained that his petition is based on facts and not merely on newspaper cuttings. He also sought permission to amend the parties in his petition.

Read | 'Serious charges': SC seeks Centre's stand on Pegasus

The bench also pointed out to the counsel he made a complaint to the CBI in the matter and the very next he filed the writ petition before the top court.

Sharma claimed the government was fabricating material in the computer through this software.

During the hearing, the court pointed out that there were too many petitions and it has to see on which petitions it has to issue formal notice and on which it shouldn’t.

The top court asked petitioners to serve copy on the Union of India and indicated that only in a few petitions court, it may issue notice on Tuesday after taking into account the views of the Centre.

In his arguments, Sharma claimed, "Now Facebook and WhatsApp have signed a consent statement. There are apprehensions on what was said before the USA court. Once you enter computer you get pass word and everything else. This is very important and any document can be planted. This declaration by NSO before the US was very important."

In his plea, Sharma claimed, Pegasus scandal was a matter of grave concern and an attack on the Indian democracy, country's security and judiciary.

"The widespread use of surveillance is morally disfiguring. National security implications of this software are huge," his plea stated.