The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Narendra Modi government to submit a report with details of the decision-making process to buy 36 Rafale fighters from France by October 29. The Supreme Court asked the government to submit the details in a sealed cover.
The Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Joseph, however declined to issue a notice to the government on the Rafale deal and declared that it did not want the “technical details” or get into pricing issues.
The Supreme Court was initially slated to take up a batch of petitions on the Rafale deal on Wednesday; however, it did not take up the pleas and fixed October 31 as the date for taking them up. Responding to the pleas, the Centre argued that the PILs were filed to gain political mileage.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the Supreme Court that the details of the Rafale deal pertain to national security and couldn't be “reviewed judicially”.
A fresh PIL was filed on Monday by lawyer Vineet Dhanda, who argued the criticism of the Rafale deal had reached a “proverbial nadir” as opposition parties had adopted a very "ignominious and profligate way even to criticise the prime minister of the country". Dhanda also pleaded that the details of the Rafale agreement from the government be used only for the Supreme Court's information and not be made public.
On Monday, another plea on the Rafale deal was filed by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh to demand a special investigation team, supervised by the Supreme Court. Singh wanted the SIT to probe why earlier negotiations to buy 126 Rafale jets were cancelled and the new deal to buy 36 jets instituted, how the price of each aircraft rose from Rs 526 crore to more than Rs 1,500 crore and how Reliance Defence was drafted into the agreement.
Earlier, another lawyer, M.L. Sharma, had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court, seeking a stay on the Rafale deal, claiming it was an “outcome of corruption”.
(With PTI inputs)
