SC dismisses govt’s objections on leaked Rafale docs

Supreme Court has dismissed preliminary objections raised by the Centre that documents on which it claimed ‘privilege’ cannot be relied upon to re-examine the verdict in the Rafale fighter jet deal.

The Centre had submitted that the privilege documents were procured by petitioners in an illegal way and used to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018 judgement of the apex court dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said that they are dismissing the preliminary objection raised by Union of India questioning the maintainability of the review petition. 

The apex court said review petitions against its December 14 verdict dismissing all petitions against procurement of Rafale jets will be decided on merits. The court said it will fix a date for hearing review petitions.

Reacting to Rafale judgement, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his govt have compromised national security for corruption and cronyism in an important defence deal. 
Mr Yechuri said, they tried to evade accountability, denied a Joint Parliamentary Committee, hide price from CAG, tried to first mislead, then stall any hearing in Supreme Court. 
He said, Mr 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. 

The Hindu