SC to hear petitions seeking review of its Rafale verdict today

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will hear the review petitions in an open court.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday hear a batch of petitions seeking review of its December 14 judgement on Rafale fighter jet deal in which it had refused to order a probe into the deal for procuring 36 Rafale jets from France.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph will hear the review petitions in the open court.

The top court had on February 26 agreed to hear in open court the petitions seeking review of its December verdict that had dismissed pleas challenging the deal between India and France for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets.

A bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, in its chamber hearing, had allowed the prayer of former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie as also activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan that the review petitions be heard in open court.

"The prayer for open an court hearing is allowed", said the bench which also considered the review petition filed by AAP MP Sanjay Singh through lawyer Dheeraj Singh.

Besides two review petitions, the top court is also seized of some applications including the one filed by Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan seeking perjury prosecution of government officials for allegedly misleading the court on the issue of pricing and procurement process.

A day after the December verdict, the Centre had moved the apex court seeking correction in the judgement where a reference was made about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), saying "misinterpretation" of its note has "resulted in a controversy in the public domain".

On December 14, 2018, the apex court had dismissed various pleas challenging the deal for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets by India from France, saying that there was no occasion to "really doubt the decision-making process" warranting setting aside of the contract.

In its verdict, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had dealt with "three broad areas of concern" raised in the petitions - the decision making process, pricing and the choice of Indian offset partners (IOP) - and said there was no reason for intervention by the court on the "sensitive issue" of purchase of 36 jets.

It had said the Indian Air Force (IAF) needs advanced fighter jets as the country cannot afford to be "unprepared" or "under-prepared" in a situation where adversaries have acquired fourth and fifth-generation fighter aircraft, "of which, we have none".