Supreme Court’s Pegasus Verdict: ‘Poorest man in his cottage bid defiance to Crown’, eight stinging remarks from top court’s judgement

In a setback for the Modi government, the Supreme Court today appointed a three-member committee of independent cyber experts to probe the allegations of misuse of Israeli spyware Pegasus for surveillance of certain people in India. The court today said that the committee has been formed to probe the falsity and discover the truth in Pegasus row and added that allegations of Right to Privacy violation need to be examined. The three-member committee will be headed by RV Raveendran, former Supreme Court Judge. Justice Raveendran will oversee the functioning of the panel of cyber security, digital forensics, networks and hardware and the three members are Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Prabaharan P and Ashwin Anil Gumaste. The apex court said that former IPS officer Alok Joshi and Sundeep Oberoi — Chairman, Sub Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/International Electro-Technical Commission/JointTechnical Committee) — will assist Justice Raveendran to oversee the task to the committee. Below are key highlights from the Supreme Court’s judgement: