NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court noted that five out of 29 phones had some malware issues while hearing the Pegasus spyware case on Thursday.
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said, "So far as technical committee reports are concerned it appears 29 phones were given to the committee and they have found some malware...5 out of 29 phones had some malware, but not saying if it was due to Pegasus."
It also noted that it appeared from the report submitted by the committee that the Government of India wasn’t cooperative.
The report of Justice Raveendran has recommended enhancing and improving the cyber security of citizens, establishing mechanisms for citizens to raise grievances and setting up private agencies that investigate the offences.
In October 2021, the apex court in a batch of petitions filed by petitioners who alleged to be direct victims of the Pegasus attack appointed a Technical Committee comprising three-member under the supervision of Justice RV Raveendran.
The committee had to look into the allegations of unauthorised surveillance using Pegasus. The court had asked the committee to submit the report after a thorough enquiry expeditiously.
On May 20, the top court after considering the technical committee’s interim report granted the committee more time to submit its final report.
“The technical committee is directed to expedite examination of the Mobiles/Devices received by it, preferably within a period of four weeks and submit a report to the learned Overseeing Judge. The learned Overseeing Judge is requested to send the report as early as possible,” the bench in its order had said.
(With inputs from ENS)