SC to take up pleas on Rafale review

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would consider hearing pleas seeking review of its December 14 verdict that had dismissed petitions challenging the deal between India and France for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets. The top court had rejected the petitions, including those by former Union ministers, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie as also lawyer Prashant Bhushan, seeking judicial scrutiny and court-monitored CBI probe into the Rs 58,000 crore deal, saying there was no occasion to "really doubt the decision making process".

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday considered the submission of Bhushan that his review plea and a separate application, seeking perjury prosecution of some government officials for "misleading" the court during earlier hearings, be listed urgently. "We believe there are four petitions in the matter. One by Union of India... Some petitions (having defects) are lying with the registry," said the bench, also comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Sanjiv Khanna. 

"The combination (of the judges) of bench will have to be changed. It is very difficult. We will do something for it," the bench said. The December verdict was delivered by the bench comprising the CJI and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph. The two Justices are currently part of different bench combinations. Bhushan said the review petition filed by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was defective and the defect has to be cured and so far as other pleas were concerned, they can be listed for the hearing. 

Besides Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan, advocates M L Sharma and Vineet Dhanda and AAP leader Sanjay Singh had also filed pleas challenging the Rafale deal.While dismissing the pleas, the apex court 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 had said there was no reason for intervention by the court on the "sensitive issue" of purchase of 36 jets. 

A day after the verdict, the Centre had moved the apex court seeking correction in the judgement where a reference has been 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".

Later, review pleas were also filed by the petitioners including Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan. Besides, the trio has filed a separate plea seeking initiation of perjury proceedings against central government officials for allegedly giving "false or misleading" information in a sealed cover in the case.