Supreme Court to hear Pegasus pleas on September 13

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted more time to the Centre to decide on filing a further response to a batch of pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged snooping of certain people in India through the use of Israeli spyware Pegasus and slated the matter for further hearing on September 13. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana had issued a notice to the Centre on the pleas on August 17, while making it clear that it did not want the government to disclose anything which compromised national security.

The Centre had earlier filed a short affidavit on the matter. As soon as the matter came up for hearing before the bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said that due to some difficulties he could not meet the officials concerned to take a decision on filing of the second affidavit and sought listing of the cases either on Thursday or Monday. "My Lords, I need to take a call on filing a second affidavit. It could not be decided due to some difficulties. Kindly give me time till Thursday or Monday," the law officer said.