[Pegasus] Has govt used military grade spyware against its own citizens or is a foreign country snooping on Indians? Yashwant Sinha plea in SC

Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha has filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the Pegasus spyware scandal..The plea filed through advocate Abhimanyu Tewari seeks to ascertain whether the Central government has used a certified military grade foreign origin spyware against its own citizens or a foreign country is snooping on the citizens of India.It stated that the citizens of the country have a right to know whether their personal information was being used by foreign or Indian agencies under the oversight of the Central government..The petition was mentioned before the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana today. All petitioners were asked to serve copies of their pleas upon the Central government..Sinha's plea has sought directions for a court-monitored probe to investigate and monitor the illegal use of the Pegasus spyware, as well as a direction to create an oversight mechanism to deal with any surveillance related request made by and to any Ministry or governmental agency..“The Pegasus spyware has been used to snoop/spy on numerous journalists across the country which is an direct attack on the fourth pillar of the democracy, infringing the fundamental right to freedom of the press and seriously abridges the right to know, which is an essential component of the right to free speech and expression,” read the plea..It was submitted that this sort of surveillance, if continued, is also a violation of an individual’s freedom of expression and is likely to have a chilling effect on free speech which will be detrimental to the Fundamental Rights enshrined under Article 19 and Article 21 of the Constitution of India.."The Respondent Government has not categorically ruled out obtaining Pegasus licenses to conduct surveillance in this response, and have taken no steps to ensure a credible and independent investigation into these extremely serious allegations," the plea said.It was also pointed out that the Union Minister for Information & Technology has repeatedly declined to answer questions on whether the Indian government had bought the Pegasus software from NSO.