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SC appoints expert probe panel on Pegasus

New Delhi, Oct 27 (UNI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday said as there is no clear stand taken by the Centre on the Pegasus spyware case, it has no option but to accept the submission in a petition seeking independent court-monitored probe, and appoint a three-member expert committee headed by RV Raveendran, former Supreme Court Judge to look into the allegations raised.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana and also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, passed the order on a batch of petitions alleging widespread and targeted surveillance of politicians, journalists, activist among others using the Pegasus spyware.

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“The three-member committee will be headed by RV Raveendran, former Supreme Court Judge. Other members will be Alok Joshi and Sandeep Oberoi,” Ramana said.

The court on September 13 reserved its order in the case after hearing more than a dozen petitions.

“No clear stand taken by the respondent (Centre) in the issue,” the CJI said, and added that we are of the opinion to appoint an Expert Committee in the case.

Chief Justice Ramana said the committee will discover the truth. “Right to privacy violation needs to be examined… We decline the request of Union of India (UOI) to dismiss this and allow their request to form a committee.

“It was an uphill task to choose independent members. We have selected this based on data gathered personally,” Ramana said, while pronouncing the judgment.

Joshi is a former IPS officer (1976 batch) and Oberoi is chairman, Sub Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee).

The Chief Justice set the date of next hearing eight weeks from now and said that the terms of reference is detailed in the order. The committee has been asked to expeditiously probe the matter.

The petitioners in the Pegasus case alleged before the Supreme Court that the government carried out unauthorised surveillance against eminent citizens, politicians and journalists by using Pegasus software.

The Congress on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision of appointing a three-member expert committee to look into the “misuse” of Pegasus spyware for surveillance.

Talking to Twitter, Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “Welcome SC order setting up Spl Committee to examine misuse of spyware #Pegasus despite Modi Govts embarrassing attempts to evade, avoid & divert attention in the name of National Security.”

Attacking the government, Surjewala said, “Pseudo-Nationalism is the last refuge of cowardly fascists everywhere.”

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