A sealed cover report of a Technical Committee’s investigation into the Union’s alleged use of Pegasus was placed on record at the Supreme Court today, reported LiveLaw. The report was submitted to the Court last month. Chief Justice N.V. Ramana spent his second-last-day as CJI presiding over the matter, alongside Justices Hima Kohli and Surya Kant. The Bench will reportedly list the matter for hearing after going over its contents. The Bench took note of the Technical Committee’s claim that ‘malware’ was found on only five of the 29 devices submitted to it, even if it was unclear whether it was Pegasus or not. It also orally remarked on the Committee’s assertion that the Union had not fully cooperated with it during the investigation. The Union refused to explicitly admit to purchasing Pegasus both in front of the Court and the Committee—a stance Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was reportedly unaware of. Divided into three parts, the documents submitted include ‘digital images’ of the allegedly hacked devices, the Technical Committee’s report, and a separate report compiled by retired Supreme Court Justice R.V. Raveendran who oversees the Committee, reports Times of India. Why it matters: The NSO Group-owned Pegasus spyware can remotely access and spy on a device. July 2021’s Pegasus Project investigations revealed that 300 Indians were listed as ‘persons of interest’ to be surveilled through the spyware. The names include prominent politicians, journalists, election commission officials, election strategists, and retired Justices. The Technical Committee was formed in October last year, in…
