Pegasus issue: Editors Guild moves SC, seeks SIT probe into snooping allegations

The Editors Guild of India EGI has moved the Supreme Court seeking a courtmonitored SIT probe into reports of surveillance of journalists activists and politicians including opposition leaders using Israeli spyware Pegasus as per a report in LiveLawThe EGI has filed a writ petition in the Apex court through Advocates Rupali Samuel Raghav Tankha and Lzafeer Ahmad B F AORFreedom of the press relies on noninterference by the government and its agencies in reporting of journalists including their ability to securely and confidentially speaking with sources investigate abuse of power and corruption expose governmental incompetence and speak with those in opposition to the government reads the petitionThe petition also sought directions to be issued to the Central government to produce details of contracts entered into with foreign companies for deploying spyware for surveillance and the persons against whom such spyware was usedThe citizens of India have a right to know if the Executive government is infringing the limits of their authority under the constitution and what steps have been taken to safeguard their fundamental rights All attempts to seek accountability and enforce constitutional limits through Parliamentary processes have been stonewalled Through their intransigence the respondents have deliberately avoided public debate on this issue and have provided obfuscated answers forcing the petitioner to approach this Honble Court to seek the enforcement of the publics right to know in performance of their obligations as trustees of the public and on behalf of all citizens of India added the pleaApart from seeking SIT probe the petitioner also sought directions to be issued to the Centre to produce orders issued authorising the interception monitoring and decryption of electronic communication devices of citizens under the relevant law and rules with the reasons in writing for issuance of the same stated a report in Bar and BenchThe plea also sought information regarding the followingDid the Union of India or any of its agencies procure license obtain andor use the spyware lsquoPegasusrsquo from lsquoNSO Grouprsquo or its group companies andor affiliates on Indian citizensDid the Union of India or any of its agencies procure license obtain andor use of spyware hacking or electronic surveillance tools of any name from lsquoNSO Grouprsquo or its group companies andor affiliates on Indian citizensDirect the Union of India to produce any contracts agreements memoranda of understanding entered into with foreign companies for supplying spyware hacking or electronic surveillance for use on Indian citizensDirect the Union of India to disclose the details of the list of people that have been under electronic surveillance hacking or otherwise spied on including the details of who prepared and populated the said list and the details of every Indian citizen on the listEarlier the EGI had tweeted a press statement saying it is shocked by the media reports on the wide spread surveillance allegedly by government agencies using PegasusEGI is shocked by the media reports on the wide spread surveillance allegedly mounted by government agencies on journalists civil society activists businessmen and politicians using a hacking software known as Pegasus created and developed by the Israeli company NSO pictwittercomI4M9pOsPTtmdash Editors Guild of India IndEditorsGuild July 21 2021This would be the fourth PIL filed before Supreme Court in relation to the scandal Earlier advocates ML Sharma Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas and journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar had also approached the top court for probe into the issues Those petitions are slated for hearing on August 5Also Read Senior journalists move Supreme Court seek independent enquiryFive journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta SNM Abdi Prem Shankar Jha Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shataksihad filed writ petitions in SC on Monday contending that unauthorised use of Pegasus spyware by government agencies violated their fundamental rights under the ConstitutionThe Pegasus controversy erupted on July 18 after The Wire and several other international publications published reports about the mobile numbers which were potential targets of the spyware service given by NSO company to various governments including India 40 Indian journalists political leaders like Rahul Gandhi election strategist Prashant Kishore former ECI member Ashok Lavassa etc are reported to be in the list of targets as per The Wire