Do not misuse legal process for publicity in media: SC warns petitioners

New Delhi, February 15: The Supreme Court Friday expressed unhappiness over some lawyers filing defective petitions and seeking wide publicity in the media while referring to review pleas challenging its verdict in the Rafale case.

"The other side is not so innocent...The petitioners go to media and claim wide publicity," the bench of Chief Justice Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said while referring to defective review petitions filed challenging its verdict in the Rafale case.

The apex court's observation came when it was hearing lawyers mentioning cases for urgent listing and hearing.

The apex court had rejected the pleas seeking lodging of an FIR and a court-monitored probe into alleged irregularities in the Rs 58,000-crore deal, in which both the countries have entered into an inter-governmental agreement (IGA).

Earlier, the apex court had on December 14 dismissed a batch of pleas challenging the deal between India and France for procurement of 36 Rafale jets, saying there was no occasion to "really doubt the decision making the process" warranting setting aside of the contract.

The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.