Central government may come in for trouble after Israeligovernment agencies have raided some offices of surveillance software vendorNSO Group and even Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea by veteran journalistsN. Ram and Sashi Kumar seeking a direction for an independent probe into thealleged Pegasus snooping scandal.
The information of raids at offices of surveillancesoftware vendor NSO Group was announced by the Israeli ministry of defence througha tweet. With Israel government becoming active to investigate the allegedsnooping scandal, and SC agreeing on hearing plea, the problems of Modi-led-BJPgovernment has intensified.
Meanwhile, Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned thematter before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice SuryaKant stating that civil liberties of citizens, politicians, belonging toOpposition parties, journalists, and court staff have been put undersurveillance.
He insisted that it is an issue, which is making waves inIndia and worldover and this issue requires an urgent hearing. After Sibal'ssubmissions, the bench said it may hear the matter next week.
The plea filed by scribes said mass surveillance using amilitary-grade spyware abridges several fundamental rights and appears torepresent an attempt to infiltrate, attack and destabilise independentinstitutions, which are critical pillars of country's democratic set-up.
The petitioners sought direction to be issued to theCentre to disclose if any of its agencies have obtained license for Pegasusspyware or used it either directly or indirectly, to conduct surveillance asalleged.
The plea claimed that hacking constitutes a criminaloffence punishable under interalia Section 66 (computer related offences), 66B(punishment for dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communicationdevice), 66E (punishment for violation of privacy) and 66F (punishment forcyberterrorism) of the IT Act, punishable with imprisonment and/or fine.
Earlier, advocate ML Sharma and Rajya Sabha MP JohnBrittas had also moved the apex court seeking probe into the spyingallegations.