Opposition welcomes SC verdict on Rafale review petitions: Who said what

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Wednesday rejected preliminary objections raised by the Centre seeking review of earlier judgment giving a clean chit to the government in Rafale deal with France.

"We dismiss the preliminary objection raised by Union of India questioning the maintainability of the review petition," a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said unanimously. The top court will now fix a date for hearing review petitions.

Several Opposition parties welcomed the SC judgement to review the Rafale petition.

“This is a victory for India! We welcome the Supreme Court’s judgement to review the Rafale petition. Satyamev Jayate!,” tweeted Congress.

“Modi Govt tried its best to suppress the truth of the #RafaleDeal including misleading the Supreme Court and then claimed the Court has provided a clean chit. With this ruling, the stage is set for the Truth to come out about this Mega Scam to favour Anil Ambani,” tweeted Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Modi ji as saying everywhere that he received a clean chit from the Supreme Court in Rafale deal. Today's Supreme Court decision proved that Modi ji stole in Rafale (deal), cheated the country's Army, and misled the Supreme Court to hide his crime.”

PM Modi-led government's attempt to hide the corruption in Rafale deal has failed, alleged Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati. "Modi must apologise for misleading the country by repeatedly lying within and outside Parliament while Minister of Defence must resign," she added.

CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury tweeted, “Modi and his minions have falsely claimed that they have a “clean chit” in the Rafale scam. But the proofs have come tumbling out one after another. It has been the most corrupt and most compromised govt in India's history. Now is the time to throw it out.”

Former union minister Arun Shourie, one of the review petitioners in the Rafale case said that he's delighted by the unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court dismissing Centre's "peculiar argument" on admissibility of privileged documents. "We are delighted it is an unanimous verdict dismissing Central government's peculiar argument on admissibility of documents. Centre's argument meant no wrong can be done in the defence deal," he told PTI.