Pegasus snooping row: Government won’t file affidavit in Supreme Court

The government today said it would not file a detailed affidavit in response to multiple pleas seeking an independent probe into the Pegasus spyware scandal, news agency PTI reported. The Centre told the apex court that it has nothing to hide and that is why it has on its own said it will constitute a panel of domain experts.

The government had been instructed to file the affidavit by the Supreme Court and had twice taken time to submit its response.

“Report of Committee of domain experts will be made available to SC,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the apex court.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana had on September 7 had granted more time to the Centre to decide on filing a further response on the petitions after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that due to some difficulties he could not meet the officials concerned to take a decision on the filing of the second affidavit.

On August 17, the top court had issued notice to the Centre on the pleas, making it clear that it did not want the government to disclose anything which compromises national security.

The pleas are related to reports of alleged snooping by government agencies on eminent citizens, politicians and scribes by using Israeli firm NSO's spyware Pegasus.

An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware.