NEW DELHI, Sept 7: Agreeing to the Centre’s requests, the Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned till September 13 the hearing in a batch of cases seeking an independent probe into the alleged Israeli spyware Pegasus snooping row after the Centre sought more time.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana re-scheduled the hearing to September 13 after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the centre requested for a short adjournment stating that he could not meet with officials to discuss the issue of filling a detailed affidavit. Mehta indicated that the government may be filing an affidavit in the case, and he needed time to meet with the officials concerned. Earlier, in August, the government had filed a two-page affidavit denying “all and any allegations.”
“Haven’t you already filed an affidavit?” the CJI referred to the August affidavit. Mehta submitted that the court had left it open for the government to file another, detailed affidavit, if necessary. During the previous day’s hearing on August 17, the government had argued against a public hearing of the case, citing national security concerns. The Centre had asked the court, instead, to allow it to form an independent committee of experts to look into Pegasus snooping reports.
“As a responsible government, we are submitting that we will form a Committee of neutral experts, whose report will be placed before the Supreme Court… I repeat, it is not my case that I will not divulge anything. All will be revealed before the Committee… Let me do that before a Committee… Permit us to form a Committee… We will place its report before the Supreme Court itself,” Mehta had urged the court on August 17.
The court had, however, made it clear that there was no question of compromising national security.
In its brief affidavit the centre had filed last month it had “unequivocally” denied all allegations made by the petitioners and said the committee it proposed to constitute would go into all aspects of the issue” in order “to dispel any wrong narrative spread by certain vested interests.” The government had also stated that its position on the alleged Pegasus snooping had already been clarified in Parliament by the IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. “A bare perusal of the captioned petition and other connected petitions makes it clear that the same are based on conjectures and surmises or on other unsubstantiated media reports or incomplete or uncorroborated material,” the affidavit said.
“We are not going to ask you to divulge anything that will harm the defence of the nation… We are extremely reluctant to say anything on that. But the question here is that there are some persons of eminence who have come here, saying there has been interception of their phones… That can be done, but with the permission of the competent authority… What is the problem if that competent authority filed an affidavit before us? In the affidavit we don’t want a single word on any aspect that relates to the security of the nation… All we are saying is that we are issuing simple notice… Let the competent authority say to what extent what information can be disclosed,” Justice Surya Kant had explained.
The apex court is hearing a batch of pleas, including the one filed by the Editors Guild of India, seeking independent probe into the alleged Pegasus snooping matter.
(Manas Dasgupta)