POINTERS OF DEVELOPMENT
A. PIL filed in Pegasus software
The PIL was filed by one advocate M.L. Sharma, who has made the Prime Minister’s Office and CBI parties to the case, the Pegasus software is being used by the Prime Minister and his ministers to spy on Indian citizens for their vested political interest. A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into reports of the government using Israeli software Pegasus to spy on Indian citizens, Opposition leaders, activists, journalists and even on its own ministers. The PIL claimed that around 50,000 phone numbers were believed to be targeted by clients of the company, NSO Group, since 2016, that was leaked to major news outlets.
B. About the Software
According to published news online, the plea requested the Supreme Court to declare buying of Pegasus software for snooping is illegal and unconstitutional, urging the Union Council of Ministers to return the amount issued from the public treasury with interest, without the permission of the parliament. Invoking the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Official Secret Act,1923, Mr Sharma claimed that the CBI has not filed an FIR of his complaint on the Pegasus snooping case. He also argued that the Centre has been unable to answer whether the government or its agencies purchased Pegasus and if yes, what were the terms of its use.
It’s an Israel-based company that licenses surveillance software to government agencies. The company says its Pegasus software provides a valuable service because encryption technology means criminals and terrorists have “gone dark.” The software runs secretly on smartphones, shedding light on what the owners are doing.
Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash
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