Hearing a batch of pleas on the Pegasus row, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said there's nothing wrong in a country using spyware for security purposes, but members of civil society have a right to privacy that is protected by the Constitution.
"What’s wrong if a country is using spyware? To have spyware is not wrong, but against whom you are using it is the question. You can’t sacrifice the security of the nation," a two-judge bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said.
The apex court was hearing a number of petitions seeking a detailed probe into allegations that the government used Israeli software Pegasus for snooping against journalists, judges, activists, politicians and others.
One of the lawyers of the petitioners told the bench that the basic issue in the case was whether the government had the Pegasus spyware and was using it.
Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said, "Terrorists cannot claim privacy rights."
Hearing this, the bench said, "A civil individual who has the right to privacy will be protected under the Constitution."
Several pleas were filed before the top court in the snooping row by senior journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas of the CPI(M), advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya.
The pleas had sought an inquiry headed by a sitting or retired judge of the top court to investigate the alleged snooping.
The petition had said that the targeted surveillance using military-grade spyware is an unacceptable violation of the right to privacy which has been held to be a fundamental right under Articles 14 (Fundamental right to equality before the law and equal protection of the laws), 19 (Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc) and 21 (Protection of life and personal liberty) by the Supreme Court in the K S Puttaswamy case.
The top court had constituted a technical committee and overseeing committee on the alleged use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on phones of politicians, activists and journalists.
The panel set up to oversee the working of the technical committee was headed by Justice (retired) RV Raveendran and also included former IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Dr Sundeep Oberoi.
