Today, the Supreme Court of India said that it is not going to review its judgement on the Rafale Fighter Jet deal as it has already exonerated the Modi Government of any ill activity in the deal with Dassault Aviation, France.
On the 10th of May 2019 the Supreme Court of India reserved its decision on the petitions filed by Yashwant Sinha (ex-Union Minister), Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan which requested for a review on the judgement made by the Supreme Court.
However, later the Supreme Court bench which comprised of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice K M Joseph, and Justice S K Kaul dismissed the petitions saying ‘We don’t feel it necessary to order an FIR (First Information Report) or a roving inquiry into the Rafale deal case, we find the review petitions are without any merit’.
In the petitions filed by Singh, Shourie, and Bhushan they argued on the point that that judgement passed by the Supreme Court on India on the Rafale Deal in December 2018 ‘relied upon patently incorrect claims made by the government in an unsigned note given in a sealed cover’. In Addition, they requested for a verbal hearing of their petitions in the court.
Modi government said the people who are filing the petitions are heavily relying on the Media Reports and hence the case cannot be reopened. According to the Media Reports, the centre government had not disclosed all the details in the court.
Separately, Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi was relieved from Supreme Court today as the court closed the contempt case filed on him using ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Rafale case. The case was filed by Meenakshi Lekhi, a BJP leader who is the current Chairperson of the Public Undertakings Committee (PUC).
On 14th of December 2018, the Supreme Court of India acquitted the government in the Rafale Jet deal saying there are no grounds on which we can assume that there were any discrepancies in the decision making process. The Congress Party accused BJP of corruption in the Rs. 59,000 crores Rafale deal.
The Supreme Court rejected the request of enquiry and also dismissed the petitions which argued on the premise that Modi Government has agreed upon a higher sum for the 36 Rafale Jets in order to aid Anil Ambani. However, the court said ‘There is no evidence of commercial favouritism to any private entity’.
