Govt telling Supreme Court it can't divulge info in public is a confession that spyware was used: Chidambaram

New Delhi, August 18

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the solicitor general telling the Supreme Court that the government had information which he could not divulge in public by way of an affidavit is a “confession” that software-spyware was used, and sought to know if it was Pegasus and for what purpose it was used.

The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that divulging information on whether the country used spyware like Pegasus or not would involve national security aspect as enemies of the nation or those indulging in terror activities would change or modulate their software.

Reacting to the development, Chidambaram said, “SG tells SC that the government has information which he cannot divulge in public by way of affidavit. That is a confession that software-spyware was used. For what, we do not know.”

“We want to know if that spyware-software was called Pegasus and for what purpose was it used,” the former home minister said in a series of tweets.

If the government answers these two questions, the remaining questions will answer themselves in due course, Chidambaram said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana that those involved in terror activities might take pre-emptive steps if the government divulged details of which software is used for various purposes, including interception.

The apex court, which made it clear that it did not want the government to disclose anything which compromised national security, issued notice to the Centre on the batch of pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged Pegasus snooping matter and posted the matter for hearing after 10 days.

During the arguments, Mehta said this could not be a subject matter of affidavit and public debate and the government had said in its limited affidavit that it would constitute a committee of experts to examine all the aspects of the Pegasus issue. PTI