The Supreme Court will on Wednesday pronounce its judgement on the petitions that have sought an independent court-monitored investigation into the alleged Pegasus spyware case.

The apex court had last month stated that it would constitute a panel of experts to probe the allegations of Pegasus spyware being used to carry out unauthorised surveillance by government agencies.

The court had stated that the order on the constitution of the committee could be issued soon.

The Centre had earlier asked the court to allow it to set up a panel to investigate the allegations of hacking of phones of several prominent people using the spyware developed by Israeli firm NSO Group.

Earlier on September 13, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had reserved its order on the batch of pleas seeking a court-monitored probe in the matter.

The Central government had earlier refuted all allegations of carrying out unlawful surveillance on Indian citizens. It had in an affidavit filed in August stated that “to dispel any wrong narrative spread by certain vested interests and with an object of examining the issues raised”, it is ready to form “a Committee of Experts in the field which will go into all aspects of the issue”.

The Centre had earlier stated that the issue could not be discussed in detail in public as it entails national security concerns.

The petitioners had objected to the Centre’s request to set up its own panel and had also questioned the affidavit, stating that the government had failed to disclose whether it had purchased the Pegasus software or not.