Supreme Court to pronounce order next week on pleas seeking independent probe into Pegasus snooping row

The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it would issue an interim order on a bundle of petitions requesting an independent investigation into the Pegasus snooping case next week.

The order, which was supposed to be handed earlier, will instead be delivered next week, according to a bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana.

On September 13, the Supreme Court reserved its decision, saying it simply needed to know if the Centre used the Pegasus spyware in an unconstitutional manner to illegally spy on citizens.

The Centre had flatly refused to provide an affidavit claiming national security in response to petitions calling for an independent investigation into the snooping scandal.

The requests for an impartial investigation are in response to revelations of government agencies snooping on prominent residents, lawmakers, and scribes using Israeli firm NSO’s malware Pegasus.

Over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of prospective targets for monitoring using Pegasus malware, according to an international media consortium.