Pegasus: SC appointed committee seeks details from citizens who suspect their devices were compromised

The technical committee constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the Pegasus surveillance scandal has issued a public notice seeking details from citizens who have a reasonable cause to suspect that their devices were compromised by the Pegasus spyware..A notice in this regard was issued by the committee in newspapers."Person who suspects his/her device is infected should send the Technical Committee an email to inquiry@pegasus-india-investigation.in by January 7, 2022," the public notice said.Additionally, the committee also urged the citizens to contact it with reasons as to why they believe their devices may have been infected by the Pegasus malware, and whether they would be in a position to allow the committee to examine their device."In case the committee feels your (citizen) reasons for suspicion of the device being infected with the malware compel a further investigation, then the committee shall requests you to allow examination of your (citizen) device," the notice stated..Last year on October 27, the Supreme Court had ordered a probe into the Pegasus surveillance scandal by an independent three-member expert committee headed by former Supreme Court judge, Justice RV Raveendran and assisted by Alok Joshi (former IPS Officer) and Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, Sub Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/ International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee).The top court had also called for the constitution of Technical Committee comprising:Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean of the National Forensic Sciences University, Gujarat. He has over two decades of experience as an academician, cyber security enabler and cyber security expert.Dr. Prabaharan P, Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala. He has two decades of experience in computer science and security areas.Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He has been granted 20 US patents and has published over 150 papers and authored 3 books in his field. He has received several National awards including the Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (2012) and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (2018).While passing probe orders, the three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli had berated the Central government for raising the argument of national security to defend its case stating that it cannot be an omnibus argument to gain a free pass every time the Court exercises judicial review."State cannot get free pass every time by raising national security concerns. no omnibus prohibition can be called against judicial review. Centre should have justified its stand here and not render the court a mute spectator," the top court had said.Subsequently, on December 18, the Supreme Court had stayed the functioning of the two-member commission headed by retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Madan B Lokur which was constituted by the West Bengal government to probe the Pegasus surveillance scandal.