"No Occasion To Doubt The Decision-Making": SC Dismisses All Petitions Demanding Probe Into Rafale Deal

Dismissing petitions demanding the investigation into the Rafale deal, the Supreme Court on December 14 said that “there is no occasion to doubt the decision-making” in the controversial deal.

The Bench comprising of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph dismissed all petitions against the deal. The court said that it was a “hard fact” that the new 36-jet-deal was negotiated after the earlier proposed 126 jets deal could not go ahead.

“No material to show it is commercial favouritism”

The apex court said, “ We cannot go into the wisdom of why the deal for 36 Rafale jets was made and not the original 126 aircraft. We cannot ask the government to go for 126 aircraft,” according to The Tribune.

On the issue of offset partner, the bench said that it did not find any material to show that it was a case of commercial favouritism. The court also added that the decision to award the offset to Anil Ambani-owned Reliance group was that of the Centre and vendor.

Supreme Court: We don’t find any material to show that it’s commercial favouritism #RafaleDeal

— ANI (@ANI) December 14, 2018

One of the main issues raised by the petitioners in the Rafale deal was that of the pricing. CJI Ranjan Gogoi said that it was not the job of the court to compare the pricing details of the deal.

As reported by The Tribune, this was also the first time when four senior IAF officers, including three Air Marshalls and an Air Vice Marshall along with the Additional Secretary (Defence), appeared before SC to discuss the aspects of the deal. The officers were asked questions about earlier acquisitions and the generation of aircraft which IAF was presently using. The Bench said, “Our country can’t remain unprepared when adversaries have acquired 4th & 5th generation fighter jets compared to none by India. We have interacted with senior Indian Air Force officers and there is no doubt about the need and quality of Rafale jets.”

“Very disappointing”: Prashant Bhushan

Multiple petitions in this deal were filed by lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma, AAP legislator Sanjay Singh and the trio of Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan.

One of the petitioners and eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan in a series of tweet said that the Supreme Court’s judgment saying that there was no need for the court to order investigation was “very disappointing”.

Very disappointing Jt of the SC saying that there is no need for the court to order investigation into Rafale deal.Court says price seems OK on basis of govt's sealed cover, which was not shown to us. Today Caravan has revealed that Modi himself increased price from 5.2-7.8B Euro

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) December 14, 2018

SC also accepted govt claim that selection of Ambani as offset partner was done by Dassalt and the government has no role in it, despite the fact that defence procurement procedures and offset guidelines require that all offset contracts must be approved by the Defence Minister!

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) December 14, 2018

Also Read: “No Guarantee From France On Rafale But A Letter Of Comfort Issued”: Govt To Supreme Court