government agency and if citizens were spied on if any governmental agency has used the pegasus suite of spyware on citizens under what law rule guideline protocol or lawful procedure was such deployment made and if any domestic entityperson has used the spyware on the citizens of this country then is such a use authorised it saidthe committee will comprise dr naveen kumar chaudhary professor of cybersecurity and digital forensics dr prabaharan p computer science professor and dr ashwin anil gumaste from iit bombay former sc judge r v raveendran will oversee the probe with the assistance of former ips officer alok joshi and cybersecurity expert sundeep oberoi it directed the panel to hold the probe expeditiously and file a report and posted the case after eight weeksthe bench referred to seven compelling reasons to order the probe and said that the court would interfere as rights of the entire citizenry are affected by the allegations due to the potential chilling effect and because no clear stand was taken by the centre the centre initially gave a brief affidavit denying the allegations then agreed to submit a more detailed one only to declare it has nothing to add while stating that no illegal or unauthorised tappingsnooping was being donethe court took into consideration the seriousness shown by several other countries on the issue and considered the allegation that a foreign authority agency or private entity may be involved in placing indian citizens under surveillancethe court said unauthorised surveillance or accessing of data stored on phones and other devices of citizens for reasons other than nations security would be illegal objectionable and a matter of concernin a democratic country governed by the rule of law indiscriminate spying on individuals cannot be allowed except with sufficient statutory safeguards by following the procedure established by law under the constitution it saidit emphasised that despite repeated assurances and opportunities the centre only placed on record what it called a limited affidavit which does not shed any light on its stand or provide any clarity as to the facts of the matter at hand we live in the era of information revolution where the entire lives of individuals are stored on cloud or in a digital dossier we must recognise that while technology is a useful tool for improving the lives of the people it can also be used to breach that sacred private space of an individual it said