New Delhi: The Supreme Court directed Tuesday the Centre to file response by May 4 to the petitions seeking review of last December’s verdict by which the apex court had dismissed the pleas challenging India’s deal to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi did not allow the plea of the Centre that it be granted four weeks time to file its response to the pleas. It asked the Centre to submit the response latest by Saturday.
The bench, which also comprised Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, has fixed May 6 for hearing the petitions.
Former Union Ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan have filed a petition seeking review of the December 14, 2018 verdict of the apex court giving clean chit to the Rafale deal. Besides the trio, AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh has also filed a separate review petition in the case.
In its earlier verdict, the apex court had said there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 jets from France and dismissed all the petitions seeking an investigation into alleged irregularities in the Rs 58,000 crore deal. The top court had also said there was no substantial evidence of commercial favouritism to any private entity.
Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan had approached January 2 the apex court seeking review of the judgement, alleging that the court had relied upon ‘patently incorrect’ claims made by the government in an unsigned note given in a sealed cover in the court.
The Centre had earlier submitted that three privileged documents were unauthorisedly removed from the Defence Ministry and used by the petitioners to support their review petitions against the verdict which had dismissed all pleas challenging the procurement of the fighter jets.
In a setback to the Centre, the apex court, April 10 allowed the pleas which relied on leaked documents for seeking review of its Rafale judgement and dismissed the government’s preliminary objections claiming ‘privilege’ over the documents.
The top court had rejected the objections raised by the Centre that those documents were not admissible as evidence under Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act, and no one can produce them in court without the permission of the department concerned as they are also protected under the ‘Official Secrets Act’.
Rahul asked to file one more affidavit regarding ‘chowkidar chor hai’ remark
In another development, the Supreme Court gave Tuesday another opportunity to Congress president Rahul Gandhi to file one more affidavit relating to his alleged contemptuous ‘chowkidar chor hai’ remark, which the apex court said was wrongly attributed to it.
Though Rahul, through his counsel, admitted he made a mistake by wrongly attributing the remark to the Supreme Court, a bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi observed that in the affidavit filed, at one point the Congress president is admitting the mistake and at one point denying of making contemptuous remarks.
“We have great difficulty in understanding what you want to say in the affidavit,” said the bench, also comprising justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph. The top court told Gandhi’s counsel that it was not concerned with the political stand narrated in the affidavit.
The court posted the matter for hearing, May 6.