The Supreme Court Thursday said it is instituting an expert committee to conduct an inquiry into the alleged Pegasus snooping row. Chief Justice NV Ramana said the court will pass a formal order next week on the pleas seeking an independent probe into the Pegasus matter.

The SC bench pointed out that while the order on the batch of pleas was to be pronounced earlier, it will now be read out next week.

The CJI said some experts have expressed their inability to join the committee due to personal reasons.

When on September 13 the Supreme Court had reserved its order on the matter, the bench had stated that it only wanted to know whether or not the Pegasus software was used by the Centre to illegally snoop on citizens.

The Centre had during an earlier hearing stated that it would not file an affidavit in the matter and had cited national security as the reason.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, had told the court that it has nothing to hide in the matter.

“Whether particular software was used or not is not a matter for public discussion,” Mehta told the bench also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose.

The pleas have sought an independent investigation into the claims that government agencies indulged in alleged snooping on eminent citizens, politicians and scribes with the help of the Pegasus software created by Israeli firm NSO Group.

According to an international media consortium, more than 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were part of the thousands of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware.