The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the Centre’s preliminary objections to pleas seeking review of the court’s judgement in the Rafale deal.
A three-bench judge, headed by chief justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, said that the top court would hear Rafale review pleas in detail and that the ‘stolen’ documents of defence are admissible. A date for hearing of the review petitions will be fixed soon.
The Centre had claimed the privileged documents were procured by the plaints in an illegal way.
On December 14, 2018, the apex court had dismissed all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from French defence major Dassault aviation.
Welcoming the Supreme Court ruling that dismissed the Centre’s objection to consider the defence documents, which were published in the media, as evidence in the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal, Congress slammed Narendra Modi government, saying “the skeletons in Rafale scam are tumbling out one by one”.
In a series of tweets, AICC communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said that Modi cannot hide behind the ‘official secrets act’. “Modiji, you can run and lie as much as you want, But sooner or later the truth comes out. The skeletons in Rafale Scam are tumbling out one by one. And now there is ‘no official secrets act’ to hide behind,” he tweeted.
In another tweet, Surjewala said that the Supreme Court has upheld a time honoured legal principle. “A rattled Modiji had threatened to invoke Official Secrets Act against independent journalists for exposing his corruption on Rafale,” he tweeted and added, “don’t worry Modiji, an investigation is going to take place now, whether you like it or not”.
On the other hand, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati demanded apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and resignation of the defence minister. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Mayawati tweeted,”PM Modi’s efforts to hide massive problems and corruption under the Rafale scheme in the name of national security have failed.”
“BJP has been exposed. PM has spoken lies inside and outside the Parliament and he should seek apology and defence minister should resign in wake of the SC ruling,” she said.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal attacked Modi on the Supreme Court dismissing the Centre’s objections to pleas seeking review in the Rafale deal and said he has cheated the country’s army. “Modiji was saying everywhere that he got clean chit in Rafale from the Supreme Court. The judgment of Supreme Court today has proved that Modi ji has stolen in Rafael. He has cheated the army of the country and misled the Supreme Court to hide its crime.”
(With agency inputs)
