Mumbai : Supreme Court ordered ruling party BJP a clean chit to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets from France and rejected all petitions for directing CBI to register an FIR for alleged irregularities in the bargain.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that there was no scope for doubting the decision-making process in multi-billion dollar deals.
Meanwhile Bhartiya Janata Party has welcomed the verdict on Rafale jet deal, BJP President Amit Shah tweeted saying “truth always triumphs”.
https://twitter.com/AmitShah/status/1073465860692549633
The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and the bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph reserved their verdict on November 14. Four petitions seeking the investigation of the agreement were filed by Prashant Bhushan, former Union Minister Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, the lawyer. ML Sharma and Vineet Dhan, and Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh.
The apex Court said there is a need for fighter aircraft and the country can not live without the jet.
CJI, who read the judgment of the three judicial benches, said that there was no reason for interference in the procurement process for fighter planes.
The Supreme Court said that it is not the court’s work to deal with comparative details of pricing.
It is said that there is not enough information to interfere in the purchase, pricing and offset partner issue.
Meanwhile the opposition has accused the Narendra Modi’s government of devotion and corruption in the Rafale deal. They alleged that the Modi government compromised the interest of the country and instead of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, it took the side of Anil Amabani’s Reliance Defense by asking Desalt Aviation to make it an offset partner.
This decision was pronounced on a batch of requests for the demand of the court to monitor. The Supreme Court reserved its verdict on the petition of the petition on November 14. Whereas lawyer ML Sharma was the first petitioner. Later, another lawyer Vineet Dhan shifted the court to the Supreme Court with the petition for monitoring the court’s investigation.
(WithPTIInputs)
