[Pegasus] Answer our queries through a proper debate in court and not outside: Supreme Court to petitioners

The Supreme Court today said that it would decide next Monday whether or not to issue notice in the petitions pertaining to the Pegasus scandal.

. While doing so, the Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant told Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners,

"Any of the petitioners who are interested in the matter and saying things in newspapers, we expect they will answer our queries through a proper debate in court hall and not outside...

...If you want to say anything on social media, twitter etc it's your call. But if a debate is going on here, please answer here. Have some respect for the system."

. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal , appearing for one of the petitioners, agreed with this suggestion, saying,

"When case is going on here there should not be discussion outside, I agree with it."

. The Court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking various prayers including a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, a judicial inquiry and directions to the government to reveal details about whether it had used the Pegasus software to spy on citizens.

. Appearing for the Central government today, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought for more time to reply. He requested the Court not to take up the matter before Friday this week.

. CJI Ramana then said that he would not be able to hear the matter on Friday, given a "personal inconvenience."

. When Senior Advocate CU Singh , appearing for one of the petitioners, asked the Bench to issue notice in the matters, CJI Ramana said,

"I will take a call on Monday."

. During the hearing, Sibal also made a reference to the Court's questioning on the California court order in the WhatsApp v NSO case.

"This is the problem of taking one line out of context," said CJI Ramana.

Sibal replied,

"The man Mr N Ram was severely trolled."

.Fact checker: Did N Ram's petition before the Supreme Court say that California court order made note of Indian Pegasus targets?. The matter will be next heard on August 16.

. On the last date of hearing, the Bench had remarked that while the allegations in news reports regarding the Pegasus controversy are serious in nature if true, no efforts seem to have been made by the affected persons to file criminal complaints with the police before approaching the top court.

.[Pegasus Snoopgate] "Why the delay; why no police complaints:" Five observations by Supreme Court of India . The Pegasus software is a weapons grade spyware/surveillance tool manufactured by an Israeli cyber-arms firm NSO Group Technologies Limited (NSO Group). It is extremely advanced and is capable of infecting a mobile phone/device without any interaction with the owner. It can conduct intrusive surveillance including tracking and recording calls, reading text and WhatsApp messages. It can also be used to plant files on devices.

NSO claims that Pegasus is sold only to “vetted governments” and not to private entities, though the company does not reveal which governments it sells the controversial product to.

. Sixteen international media outlets across the globe including The Wire had published an investigation into the Pegasus spyware being employed by different governments worldwide, including the Indian government. It was revealed that the phone numbers of various political adversaries, journalists and Constitutional functionaries were part of the Pegasus list.

. Following the revelations, a number of petitions were filed before the Supreme Court. Among the petitioners are Advocate ML Sharma , Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas , Director of Hindu Group of publications N Ram , founder of Asianet Sashi Kumar , Editors Guild of India, journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shatakshi among others.

.[Pegasus Snoopgate] These are the 9 petitions which Supreme Court will hear today

[Pegasus] Answer our queries through a proper debate in court and not outside: Supreme Court to petitioners

Debayan Roy

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