Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud on Wednesday spoke of an early date for examining the status update on the various recommendations made last year by the Supreme Court-appointed high-powered committee on the Pegasus spyware controversy.

The committee had complained that the NDA “government has not cooperated” with the investigations conducted by it and stated five out of the 29 devices examined revealed the presence of “malware” embedded in them. However, there were no indications of the Israeli spyware being used for snooping on citizens.

The allegation was that the NDA government had used the Israeli software Pegasus to snoop on the conversations of citizens, particularly journalists and political leaders. Rights activists had argued this was an egregious violation of citizens’ fundamental right to privacy.

During the morning mentioning time on Wednesday, Justice Chandrachud, sitting in a bench with Justice P.S. Narasimha, assured a counsel that the matter would be taken up for early hearing after the advocate submitted that no effective hearing could take place for the past several months after the submission of the report in August last year.

On August 25 last year, the bench headed by then Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli, had made public a portion of the sealed-covered report by the committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice R.V. Raveendran. The report had been submitted in three parts — digital images of phones examined for spyware infection, the report of the technical committee and the report of the overseeing judge Justice Raveendran.

“One thing the committee has said is that the government has not cooperated fully with the task to examine the phones for malware or spyware…” Justice Ramana had commented.

On October 27, 2021, the apex court appointed the six-member probe panel headed by former apex court judge Justice R.V. Raveendran after the Centre refused to file any fresh affidavit either admitting or denying the allegations of illegal snooping by the government through the Israeli software. The Centre had claimed that it could not file any affidavit as the issue would come into the public domain and affect national interests.

The top court had passed the order while dealing with a batch of PILs seeking an independent probe into allegations of illegal surveillance of citizens’ mobiles and electronic gadgets by the Centre with the help of Pegasus.

The committee had recommended the enactment of new laws and regulations to protect citizens from illegal surveillance and attacks.