Indicating a probable review of its own verdict on the controversial Rafale defence deal, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that it would consider a request for early hearing of the review petition challenging its December 14 judgement.
The case came up in the Supreme Court on Thursday after lawyer Prashant Bhushan asked the Supreme Court to hear petition seeking review of its judgement on the Rafale deal. Responding to Bhushan's plea, CJI Ranjan Gogoi said, "Will do something for the listing of the case as a bench is to be constituted for it," reported ANI.
A bench headed by CJI Gogoi said four applications or petitions have been filed in the Rafale matter and one of them is still lying with the registry on account of defect. "The combination (of the judges) of bench will have to be changed. It is very difficult. We will do something for it," the bench, also comprising Justices L.N. Rao and Sanjiv Khanna, said when Bhushan sought urgent listing of the petitions in the Rafale case.
READ: Rafale: Supreme Court dismisses petitions seeking probe into deal
In its December 14 judgement, the Supreme Court, dismissing a clutch of PILs, declined to intervene in the Rafale deal, giving the government a clean chit in the Rs 58,000 crore deal. It had then said that there was "no occasion to doubt" in the decision-making process of the Centre in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France.
Bhushan said that the review petition filed by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was defective and other petitions had no defects to be cured.
He also said that besides the review petition, an application seeking perjury prosecution against some central government employees for giving misleading information to the court has also been filed.
Besides Bhushan, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie
had moved the Supreme Court on Monday seeking initiation of perjury proceedings against central government officials for allegedly giving "false or misleading" information in a sealed cover in the high-profile Rafale case.
