New Delhi: The Supreme Court agreed to hear on Friday instead of Wednesday a batch of pleas, which alleged use of Israeli spyware for surveillance of certain people in India, after taking note of the submissions of the solicitor general for the Centre that he would be busy arguing a money laundering case in another court.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana was scheduled to hear the pleas on the Pegasus issue on Wednesday for the first time after 27 October last year when it had ordered the setting up of a three-member panel of cyber experts to probe the spying allegations.
Appearing for the government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said he would be busy with a part-heard Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) matter on 23 February and, accordingly, asked for the Pegasus petitions to be heard on Friday instead of Wednesday.
On 27 October, the apex court had ordered the formation of a three-member panel of cyber experts – the Justice Raveendran committee – to probe the possibility of the Israeli spyware having been used for surveillance of certain people in India. The NSO Group, which sells the spyware, has said it only sells to ‘vetted governments’.
The petitions were filed after an international media consortium had reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware.