Supreme Court to hear plea on review petition on Rafale deal

Supreme Court to hear plea on review petition on Rafale deal

Guwahati: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea seeking review of its verdict in the Rafale jet deal case. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi told Prashant Bhushan that he would consider his plea for early hearing in the Rafale deal.

Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan and Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie had moved to the apex court earlier seeking review of the judgement on the Rafale jet deal on December 14. The petitioners earlier claimed that the court relied upon incorrect claims made by the Centre.

Although the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the plea, Justice Gogoi, however, has not mentioned the specific date for the hearing saying that an appropriate bench of the Supreme Court is yet to be constituted in the matter.

The Supreme Court in December last year had delivered its judgement on a bunch of petitions seeking probe into the Rafale deal alleging irregularities and corruption.

CJI Ranjan Gogoi, on request of Advocate Bhushan to hear the petition of Rafale deal, Gogoi said that he will do something for the listing of the case as a bench has to be constituted for it. The bench consisting of CJI Gogou, Justice SK Kaul and Justice KM Joseph had earlier dismissed all four petitions seeking a court monitored probe saying that it has not found any occasion to doubt the process of decision making, pricing and selection of offset partners.

The Judges on the Rafale deal said that they have not found any substantial material on record to show that this is a case of commercial favouritism to any part by the Government of India as the option to choose the Indian Offset Partner does not rest with the government.

A controversy erupted over a paragraph in its 29-page ruling after the verdict has been given by the top court on Rafale deal. The bench stated in Page 21, Para 25 of the judgement that the pricing details of the Rafale was shared with the CAG which, in turn shared its report with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which has been denied by Mallikarjun Kharge, who chairs the PAC saying that no such report has come to him yet and neither does the CAG know about it.

The Centre, however, moved to the Supreme Court for carrying out a correction in the paragraph a day after the Rafale judgement. It has pointed out that misinterpretation of its note has resulted in a controversy in the public domain. The application states that the two sentences in Para 25 of the judgement appeared to have been based on the note submitted by it along with the pricing details in a sealed cover but indicated the words used by the court lent a different meaning.

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