Pegasus Malware | Panel reports says probe inconclusive on use of Pegasus: Supreme Court

(Illustration by Suneesh K.)

The Supreme Court on August 25 perused the report submitted by a panel it had appointed to probe allegations of use of Pegasus malware by the government to allegedly snoop on certain eminent citizens.

The bench, as it read the report, noted that the findings of the report state that while five out of the 29 devices examined by it appeared to be infected by a malware, it remained inconclusive as to whether the infection was due to Pegasus or other malware or lack of cyber hygiene.

The three-judge bench has said that the part of the panel report that speaks about the lacunae in laws concerning cyber security and data privacy and protection would be made public and published on the court's website.

The part of the report that deals with details of the examination of 29 devices by the panel needs further consideration, the court said. Pertinently, some of the persons who volunteered their devices for forensic examination have urged the court to allow them access to the redacted copy of the report.

The bench also remarked that the panel reports says that the government of India did not cooperate in the probe, however, the court refrained from expressing opinion on this aspect.

The court said it will require time to consider further course of action and will hear the case again after four weeks.

A court-appointed technical panel had earlier submitted its reports to the court on allegations of snooping on eminent citizens, journalists, activists, among others by the government using Israeli malware Pegasus.

The committee was tasked with probing digital forensic evidence to ascertain likelihood of devices being affected by Pegasus. Additionally, the panel was also required to give recommendations pertaining to tightening the laws to protect cyber security, data privacy and protection against surveillance of the citizens.

The case was taken up for hearing by the court in 2021 when a batch of petitions flagged various media reports which suggested that the Indian government had deployed Pegasus software for surveilling certain eminent citizens.

The petitioners pressed for the court to direct the government to divulge whether it uses Pegasus software at all. The government, however, refused to divulge such detail on the grounds that sophisticated methods are used by countries to preempt and prevent terror activities and any disclosure by the government is likely to work in the favour of anti-national elements. In the interest of national security, the government refused to disclose details regarding whether or not the software was purchased and sued.

In October, the apex court proceeded to form a committee to look into the allegations of snooping and surveillance and stated that the court cannot shy away from touching upon an important issue at the very mention of the term "national security".

The committee had submitted its interim report in May this year and sought an extension of time for placing a final report before the court. The final report was subsequently submitted to the court in a sealed cover.