Pegasus, Privacy and Judiciary: Reflection on Supreme Court’s Recent Remarks

By Dr. Rahila Sikandar, Editor@JudgesandLawyers

Independent India has never witnessed the gush of any malevolent software marking its role onto the privacy of its citizens as what Pegasus spyware does. Pegasus is malicious software; it is developed by NSO group of Israel. It works on the technique of ‘zero-click’, which means that it does not require the user’s permission to enter into the phones compromising with the data secured in various devices.

The Supreme Court of India on 27/10/2021 constituted a committee under former Supreme Court judge, Justice R.V Raveendran, to enquire about the reality of Pegasus spyware in India. It is a controversy which is battering onto the right to privacy by installing the software Pegasus for surveillance on people’s devices. The software installed having the competency and capacity to have a deep access to personal data on phones as well as access to the emails, messages, calls and even do call recordings on the device, moreover it is distantly controlled giving the benefit of doubt to none. 

Analysis of the Supreme Court judgement on Manoharlal Sharma v/s Union of India & Others (2021) and various news reports indicates that, this software is purchased by some government organisation to spy on the various government officials, media personalities, political representatives, doctors, and few court staffs etc.  

The apex court’s judgement clearly indicates that the enquiry committee has to enquire, investigate and determine that whether the Pegasus spyware was used on the devices of the Indian citizens or not, and if yes then enquire about the details of the victim affected by the spyware attack.

The Supreme Court clearly asks the Government of India about the acquisition of the Pegasus spyware suite by the central or any state government and their use against its own citizens and also that under what law, rule, guideline or protocol etc., the Pegasus spyware was purchased and under whose authority such software is used.

The apex court also made certain recommendations in regards to securing the right to privacy and improving cyber security in India, mechanism to raise grievance in case of suspicion of illegal surveillance. To set up an independent cyber security agency to respond to such vulnerabilities. This order raises concerns regarding the privacy of an Indians, and with expected optimistic recommendations and directions to the Ravindran committee the apex court has fix date for the final judgement of the matter.