NEW DELHI, Feb 5 : Observing that the allegations are serious if the reports of Pegasus surveillance are true, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the lawyers appearing in nine petitions seeking probe into the Pegasus snooping controversy to serve copies of their petitions on the Government of India.

The matter has been listed for further hearing next Tuesday.  "No doubt, the allegations are serious, if the reports are true", the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana remarked during the hearing.

"Truth has to come out, that's a different story. We don't know whose names are there", he added.  Courtroom Exchange  When the matter was taken, the CJI remarked at the outset that the "allegations are serious, if the reports are true".  "Before going into all that, we have certain questions. No doubt, the allegations are serious, if the reports are true".

1. Why the individually aggrieved petitioners have not filed FIRs?  2. Why the petitions are filed now though Pegasus issue surfaced in 2019?.  CJI also remarked that the petitions are based on newspaper reports and the petitioners could have put in more effort to collect verifiable materials, as most of them are knowledgeable and resourceful journalists and activists.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar, replied that the extent of the Pegasus attack was only known now after the reports of Citizen Lab. And, individuals have no means to access the materials as Pegasus sells its services only to the Governments. In this regard, he referred to the proceedings instituted by Whatsapp against NSO technologies, the Israeli company which has developed Pegasus, to state that only governments can purchase the spyware services.

"Governments can also mean state government", the CJI observed then.  Sibal replied that he is not aware of that and given the scale of allegations, a comprehensive enquiry is needed.  Sibal also referred to "sensitive reports" regarding the inclusion of member of judiciary, and officials of the Court in the potential list of Pegasus targets. He added that the numbers of lawyers, public figures, constitutional authorities, activists etc are included in the list, as if they were all terrorists.