Supreme Court Dismisses Petition on Rafale Deal Probe

Rafale Deal: Supreme Court said that it ‘did not find’ material to show commercial favouritism.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

The Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on 14 December on pleas seeking court-monitored probe into India's multi-billion dollar Rafale fighter jet deal with France.

While hearing a bunch of pleas alleging criminality in the Rafale deal and seeking a court-monitored probe into it, the apex court had asked wide-ranging questions to the government on issues including lack of sovereign guarantee from the French government, selection of Indian offset partner by the Dassault Aviation and need of entering into Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with France.

The Supreme Court said that it “did not find” any material which indicates commercial favouritism.

“There is no reason for interference in the choice of offset partner and perception of individuals can't be the basis for roving inquiry in sensitive issue of defence procurement,” the Chief Justice said, reading the verdict.

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan called the apex court verdict “totally wrong” and that they will file a review petition.

“In our opinion the Supreme Court judgment is totally wrong. The campaign will certainly not drop and we will decide if we will file a review petition.”

Prashant Bhushan, Petitioner

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a press conference hours after the Rafale case verdict.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday, 14 December, demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal as the Supreme Court dismissed pleas seeking court-monitored probe into India's multi-billion dollar Rafale fighter jet deal with France.

Following the SC verdict, BJP President Amit Shah said Gandhi should “apologise to the nation for misleading people.”

The three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph, had heard several petitions challenging the deal, which alleged corruption and irregularities in the procedure followed for the deal to purchase 36 aircraft from Dassault.