The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, 7 September, adjourned hearing in a batch of petitions seeking a probe into the Pegasus snooping row, after the Central Government sought time, citing “difficulty regarding the affidavit".
The petitions will now be heard on 13 September, by the same bench comprising of Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Bopanna.
The Solicitor General, who had in the previous hearing told the court that the affidavit already filed by the Centre is “sufficient”; on Tuesday indicated that a further affidavit may now be filed, even though he “could not ensure the stand” just yet.
WHAT DID THE SOLICITOR GENERAL SAY?
According to LiveLaw, Tushar Mehta submitted before the Court that he was faced with some difficulty pertaining to affidavit filing and said:
“There is some difficulty regarding that affidavit. I couldn’t ensure the stand. Please consider accommodating me till day after.”
And when the Court pointed out that the Centre had already filed an affidavit, Mehta was reported to have said:
“Yes, but on the last occasion Your Lordship had enquired if we’d like to file a further affidavit. For some reason, some officers weren’t there, I couldn’t meet, etc. It could not be found out.”
Meanwhile senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for some of the petitioners, stated that he had no objection.
BACKGROUND
The Supreme Court, on 17 August, decided to issue a notice to the Centre on the petitions filed before it regarding the use of the Pegasus spyware against Indian citizens.
At the hearing, the court had asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta whether the Centre is willing to file an affidavit clarifying whether it purchased and used Pegasus or not.
"My submission is that whatever we submitted in the last affidavit covers the case," Mehta has told the court.
The Centre had filed an affidavit in the court on 16 August, which said the pleas before the court are based on "conjectures and surmises or on other unsubstantiated media reports or incomplete or uncorroborated material (sic)".
However, the affidavit, did not include an denial that the spyware in question had been acquired and used by the government/government agencies.
THE PEGASUS SPYWARE
Pegasus spyware is believed to have been used to snoop on at least 300 Indian phone numbers. The names of Rahul Gandhi, Prashant Kishor, Ashok Lavasa, and Union ministers Prahlad Patel and Ashwini Vaishnaw, are among those on the leaked list, The Wire reported.
However, the presence of the numbers in the 'Pegasus Project' does not confirm that their devices were actually 'infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack', The Wire said.
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