New Delhi, April 10:There was a setback for the government in the Rafale deal case a day before the first phase of Lok Sabha polls begin as the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected its objections and decided to rely on fresh documents to decide review petitions.
The top court in December last year had dismissed all petitions seeking a probe into the Rafale fighter jet deal.The petitioners, including Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan, had brought in certain new Ministry of Defence documents and requested the court to consider them to decide their review petition.
A Bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph unanimously rejected the government’s objections.During the open court hearing on the review petitions, Attorney General KK Venugopal had said that the documents were stolen and the court should not rely on them.
Generally, the scope of review petitions is limited to loopholes in the verdict itself. But with the court deciding to consider fresh documents, the government’s task becomes a bit difficult.
Now, the court will decide the review petitions on merit after hearing arguments from petitioners and the government. The court said it would fix a date for hearing the review petitions.
The NDA government had signed a deal with France in 2016 for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore in flyaway condition. The top court had on December 14 last year dismissed the petitions seeking a probe into the deal.
with agency inputs
