Supreme Court To Pronounce Verdict In Rafale Review Petitions Today
Mumbai: The opposition had alleged that the aircraft, built by Dassault Aviation of France, was purchased under a direct government-to-government agreement at a much higher price than the one negotiated for 126 aircraft by the UPA government under an open tender.
In 2018 the SC had given the clean chit regarding rafale deal to the BJP government. On this issue, the SC will pronounce the judgment on a batch of petitio today.
There were two review petitions — one by former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan, the other by Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh. They urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its December 14, 2018 verdict dismissing the prayer for a court-monitored investigation into the India-France deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft.
A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph reserved its judge.
The SC had also said that it was not its job to go into the issue of pricing of fighter plane so the review petition was filed by them.
They sought probe into Rs 58,000 deal and registration of first information report (FIR). The petitions which were filed after the judgment of Dec 2014, questioned the decision making process, pricing, and selection of offset partner. Dismissing all the petitions, the Bench said it saw “no reason for any intervention, on the sensitive issue of purchase of 36 defense aircraft by the Indian Government”, and that “perception of individuals cannot be the basis of a fishing and roving inquiry, especially in such matters”.
They also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had signed an agreement for 36 Rafale jets on April 10, 2015, without any such requirement being given by the Air Force Headquarters and without the approval of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which are the mandated first steps for any defense procurement.
After some revealing of some internal documents of defense ministry regarding Rafale deal, the center had filed an affidavit. In an illegal way,’ the center had procured privileged documents by petitioners. The petitioners reveal the top-secret documents regarding national security and related to the war capacity of the combat aircraft they claimed.
The top court had already given its statement in May, earlier this year. This deal to buy the 36 aircraft in the “fly-away” condition was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to France in April 2015.
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