Supreme Court on Pegasus: Government did not cooperate, no conclusive evidence

The panel told the Supreme Court that it found no conclusive proof that Pegasus spyware was found in the 29 phones it examined. Taking on record the panel's sealed report, CJI NV Ramana noted that the government was not cooperative with the committee and reiterated its previous stand of not disclosing whether it used Pegasus for spying on citizens.  

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the court-appointed technical committee had observed that the 'government of India did not cooperate' in the Pegasus spyware case. A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana said five of the 29 phones submitted contained spyware, but there was no conclusive evidence that it was the Pegasus spyware.

A major controversy had emerged last year after media reports claimed that the Israeli spyware Pegasus was being deployed in India for targeted spying.  In October last year, the Supreme Court directed a team of specialists to investigate whether the government utilised military-grade private Israeli Pegasus spyware to track opposition leaders, activists, tycoons, judges and journalists.

The apex court further stated that the government cannot receive a "free pass" each time the issue of national security is brought up and that the judiciary cannot be reduced to a "silent spectator" by virtue of the issue's mere mention.

In January, the Supreme Court-appointed technical committee published a public notice urging people to come forward and get in touch with the panel if they thought their mobile devices could have been compromised by Pegasus virus.

The Pegasus row erupted on July 18, 2021 after an international consortium of media outlets and investigative journalists reported that the phones of ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 that were potentially targeted by Pegasus, Israeli company NSO Group’s phone-hacking software.