‘Hit by spyware’, five more scribes move apex court

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 2

Ahead of the August 5 hearing on noted journalist N Ram’s petition for a judge-led probe into the Pegasus snooping scandal, five other scribes have moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre to disclose all material/documents pertaining to the use of spyware on them.

Claiming to be directly affected by the use of Pegasus spyware, petitioners, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shatakshi contended that it violated their fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

“The unique and incomparable nature of harms posed by the state-sponsored illegal hacking of inter alia the petitioners’ smartphone are an ex facie violation of his fundamental rights under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution and the impugned acts have caused irreparable injury and harm that warrant payment of damages or other rehabilitative measures to be imposed qua respondents to secure and enforce the Petitioner’s fundamental rights,” they submitted.

This is the first time that purported victims of Pegasus snooping have moved the top court.