The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that Pegasus reports affecting the country’s security and sovereignty would not be disclosed to the public. However, individuals who believe their phones were hacked may be informed separately.
A bench of justice Surya Kant and justice N Kotiswar Singh said that it would balance national security and individual privacy concerns while dealing with the Pegasus spyware case.
“Any report that touches the security and sovereignty of the country will not be touched. But individual apprehensions must be addressed,” the bench said during the hearing. It further said that sensitive reports should not become “documents for discussion on the streets.”
The justices also said they would consider how much of the technical panel’s report can be shared with concerned individuals.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing one of the petitioners, pointed out that WhatsApp itself had disclosed hacking incidents in a US court, highlighting the seriousness of the issue.
The Supreme Court scheduled the next hearing for 30 July.
The Pegasus case stems from revelations by an international media consortium, which reported that more than 300 verified Indian mobile numbers appeared on a leaked list of potential surveillance targets. Pegasus, a spyware tool developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, has been at the centre of global privacy and security debates ever since.