NEW DELHI: After expressing disappointment on the government's refusal to respond through a 'detailed' affidavit, on allegations that it ordered the use of Israeli-based spyware called Pegasus to spy on citizens, the Supreme Court today said that it will pass interim orders this week.

On August 17 a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana had sought the Centre's response on several pleas seeking an independent probe into the Pegasus snooping matter after which The government had twice asked for time to decide on filing the affidavit.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that since matters concerning national security public discourse on whether a particular software was used or not would alert terror organisations and their sleeper cells.

Mehta also urged the court to allow the government to form a committee of domain experts with no relationship with the government, who would look into the allegations of snooping orchestrated against citizens, including politicians, journalists, activists and others.

The bench consisting of Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli told Mehta that 'there cannot be any more beating around the bush in the issue' and the CJI said that it had given the government a fair opportunity to file a detailed affidavit in order to get a clear idea of its stand in the Pegasus case. "We thought the government would file a counter-affidavit, but now we will pass our interim orders," he noted.

After reserving orders, the court told Mehta, that if the government had and second thoughts in the next few days he could mention the case, before the pronouncement of the order.

A clutch of eight petitions (including one by senior journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar) seeking an independent probe into the whole Pegasus controversy has been filed in the top court. Apart from others, the Editors Guild of India has also filed a plea asking for a special investigation team to be set up to conduct a probe into the reported surveillance of journalists and others.