Snooping, phone tapping clear derogation of Article 21: Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas moves Supreme Court for SIT probe into Pegasus snooping

Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala John Brittas has moved the Supreme Court seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the Pegasus snooping scandal. .In his plea filed through advocate Resmitha R Chandran, Brittas submitted that snooping, phone tapping, wiretapping, line bugging etc. are the monitoring of the phone or the internet based conversations by a third party, is a critical invasion into an individual’s privacy."This is in clear derogation of Article-21 of the Indian Constitution unambiguously stating that no person shall be deprived of his life for personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law," the plea said. .The plea placed reliance on the statement by the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnav in the Parliament that there had been no unauthorised interception. Any authorized snooping, the petition pointed out, can be done in India only by following the procedures of lawful interceptions mandated by the laws under the provisions of Section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act 1885, Section 69 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2000, Section 92 of CrPC and Rule 419(a) of the Indian Telegraph Rules"If the Government stick on to the statement of the Hon’ble Minister for Electronics and IT-in the Parliament on 28th November 2019 that there had not been “ no unauthorized interception”, the current interception can only be considered as an authorized interception," Brittas submitted. Hence, he contended that the government needs to investigate into the allegations and apprise the public the reasons for the interceptions made to the gadgets of its own ministers, staff, Constitutional authorities including Election Commissioners, judges, CBI Officers, Supreme Court staffer, activists, scientists and journalists.The petitioner relied upon the report which was published by The Wire (news portal), which gave a a list of phone numbers of various activists/politicians from across the world targeted using Pegasus. "These numbers in the leaked list are allegedly the “target list” of phones hacked /to be hacked by the Pegasus spyware product sold by Israel’s NSO Group. The target list said to contain 136 numbers of prominent politicians, judges, journalists, businessmen, rights activists and even heads of state in the world including that of India," the petition highlighted..The petitioner also took exception to the snooping on Election Commission members and Supreme Court judges. "The aspect of interception in the phones of former Election Commission member shows that fundamentals of democracy and free and fair elections are also shaken.As the interceptions are said to be done in the gadgets of judges and supreme court staffer there is a strong interference with the administration of justice. This is unprecedented and shocking the conscience of the judicial system," the petition said..Pegasus spyware surveillance: The devil lies in what we don’t know.Earlier, a plea has been moved before the apex court by advocate ML Sharma, seeking a court monitored probe into the Pegasus snooping scandal..Sharma in his plea stated that the scandal is an attack on Indian democracy and involves issues concerning national security and judicial independence."Pegasus scandal is a matter of grave concern and an attack on the Indian democracy, country's security and judiciary. The widespread use of surveillance is morally disfiguring. National security implications of this software is huge," the plea said..Pegasus serious attack on country, judiciary: ML Sharma moves Supreme Court seeking court-monitored probe into snooping scandal.On July 19, the Wire had reported that three mobile phone numbers belonging to the Supreme Court staffer, who accused former Chief Justice of India (CJI), Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, were selected as potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus software..Supreme Court staffer who accused Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment was on list of potential Pegasus surveillance targets .Pegasus spyware made by Israel based spyware firm NSO can infect mobile phones and other electronic devices and track data while also planting files on the devices. NSO claims that Pegasus is sold only to “vetted governments” and not to private entities, though the company does not reveal which governments it sells the controversial product to.