Supreme Court to hear Pegasus case on Friday

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the case relating to the Pegasus surveillance scandal on Friday, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested for a new date before the Chief Justice N V Ramana, pointing out that he is supposed to be arguing a different part-heard case on Wednesday.

The Pegasus panel, appointed by the Supreme Court, have submitted an interim report appraising the apex court about the progress on the probe. The matter was listed for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli on Wednesday. The panel had earlier said that only two people submitted their mobile phones with it for forensic examination.

On October 27 last year, the top court said it was compelled to take up the cause to determine the truth, as it appointed an independent expert technical committee supervised by a retired top court judge, Justice R.V. Raveendran, to probe the Pegasus snooping allegations.

The top court had authorised the technical committee to devise its own procedure to effectively implement and answer the terms of reference. The committee can hold an investigation it deems fit and take statements of any person in connection with the inquiry and call for records of any authority or individual.