Why US court’s fine on Israeli firm operating Pegasus is an indictment of the Indian Supreme Court

Last week, a jury in the US ordered NSO Group, the Israeli technology firm that sells Pegasus spyware to pay millions in dollars in damages to the messaging service WhatsApp.

The six-year trial in the US stands in stark contrast to the pace of proceedings in India’s Supreme Court related to Pegasus, legal experts told Scroll.

Since July 2021, petitions have been pending before the Supreme Court demanding a judicial investigation into whether the Indian government used Pegasus to spy on opposition leaders, activists, journalists and even its own ministers. However, the court has not yet been able to get an answer from the government about whether it deployed Pegasus against the petitioners and other citizens.

The US case started in 2019, when American tech giant Meta sued NSO, alleging that Pegasus was used to spy on users of Meta’s messaging service, WhatsApp.

Five years later, a US court found the NSO Group liable for the unauthorised surveillance of 1,400 WhatsApp users.

On Tuesday, NSO was ordered to pay Pegasus $167.3 million, or over Rs 1,417 crore, in punitive damages, as well as $444,719, or over Rs 37 lakh, as compensatory damages.

Legal experts that Scroll spoke with expressed disappointment at how the matter has dragged on in India’s Supreme Court in contrast to the manner...

Read more