Supreme Court refuses to entertain PIL seeking fresh probe into Rafale deal
The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking it to order an inquiry into the Rafale fighter jet purchase deal on the basis of reports that French investigators had found that 1 million Euros were paid to a middleman to secure the Indian order.
A bench of Justices U U Lalit and S Ravindra Bhat said, “Having gone through the facts and circumstances of the case on record, in our considered view, no case is made out to exercise jurisdiction of this court Article 32 of the Constitution”.
Lawyer M L Sharma told the bench that he was confining his plea to the request to summon the documents of the French investigator. “I don’t have that document… So rule of the law should be applied to the cancellation of the entire contract. It’s a serious matter… If that document comes, evidence comes before this court,” said Sharma and urged the court to issue Letter Rogatory to summon the document cited in media reports.
The bench initially said it was dismissing the plea. Subsequently, Sharma urged the top court to allow him to withdraw it. The Supreme Court allowed his request.
The counsel added that he had lodged a complaint with the CBI too. The bench said it was a separate matter and the court does not want to get into it, adding that nobody was stopping him from doing so.
A three-judge SC bench had on December 14, 2018, dismissed petitions, including one by Sharma, seeking a court-monitored investigation into the fighter purchase, saying it found “no occasion to really doubt the process” of decision making, pricing and selection of offset partners. The court also said there was no material to show that the government had favoured anyone commercially.
Sharma, however, approached the court again with a fresh PIL in April 2021, making Prime Minister Narendra Modi the first respondent.
On November 14, 2019, the top court also dismissed petitions seeking a review of its December 2018 judgement.
