1 The Supreme Court on Friday said its technical committee had so far received and tested 29 mobile devices

and tested 29 mobile devices suspected to be infected by Pegasus malware and gave it four
2 weeks to submit a report to Justice R.V. Raveendran, a retired apex court judge overseeing the panel’s inquiry into reports that the government used the Israel-based
3 military-grade spyware to snoop on journalists, parliamentarians, prominent citizens and even court staff.
4 Video Player is loading.

5
6 Opening the interim report submitted by the committee in court, a Special Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana said the committee had developed its own
7 protocol/software to test the devices for malware.
8 The committee also recorded the statements of petitioners, who had approached the court, journalists and other allegedly affected persons.
9 It has also contacted experts and agencies, including government ones, who could “potentially throw light on the subject of inquiry”.
10 The committee has further undertaken a “public consultation exercise” to invite views and comments on the subject of inquiry, the CJI read out the interim report to
11 lawyers, including senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the petitioners, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre.
12 The interim report said the committee had got a “large number of responses”. It was awaiting responses from the agencies. It said the process of analysing the responses
13 was in progress.
14 The committee said its investigation would be completed by the end of May 2022.
15 The interim report said the overseeing judge, Justice Raveendran, assisted by two experts, would then require another 15 days to study the recommendations of the
16 technical committee and add views and comments.
17 The interim report sought an extension of time till June 20, 2022 to complete the entire exercise and file a comprehensive report before the Supreme Court.
18 “The process is on. We will give them time,” the CJI told the lawyers, who agreed.
19 When the parties, including the Union, urged the court to make the interim

20