Amid a row regarding the Pegasus snooping scandal in Parliament, the Supreme Court will be hearing a clutch of petitions seeking a special investigation into the matter on Thursday. On Friday, the court agreed to hear the plea of senior journalist N Ram seeking an independent probe by a sitting or a retired judge into the Pegasus snooping matter.
A two-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Surya Kant will be hearing the petitions.
Other petitions by senior journalist Sashi Kumar and CPM's Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas will also be heard on Thursday.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Ram and veteran scribe Sashi Kumar, that the petition has been filed and numbered and needed to be heard in view of the large ramifications of the alleged snooping.
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“We will list it sometime in next week,” the CJI said.
The plea said the alleged snooping represented an attempt by agencies and organisations to muzzle and chill the exercise of free speech and expression of dissent in India.
An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of potential targets for surveillance using Israeli firm NSO''s Pegasus spyware.
(With inputs from PTI)
