Dismissing review petitions on Rafale judgment, SC passes clean chit to Modi-led govt in fighter jets deal case

New Delhi, November 14:  Dashing out complications and emerging strong, the Supreme Court on Thursday gave a clean chit to the Modi-led government in the Rafale fighter jets deal case, saying review petitions were without merit. The court rejected pleas which had sought re-examination of the December 14, 2018 verdict which said there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets.

 

 

The apex court rejected the contention that there was need for registration of FIR in connection with the deal. "We find the review petitions are without any merit", a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, also comprising of Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph.

 

The Centre initially argued that the court could not take these documents into account as they were “secret” and obtained through “unauthorised photocopying and leakage”. However, the SC struck down the contention in April and decided to hear the case on merits. Before the court reserved its order, the government in its final argument had opposed reopening of the Rafale case.

 

The Rafale case also took centrestage during the national elections when then Congress chief Rahul Gandhi started the ‘chowkidar chor hai’ campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This however got him into trouble after he seemed to attribute his slogan to the apex court. India formally took delivery of the first fighter jet when Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited France last month. The planes, however, will start arriving in India only beginning May 2020.