Opposition parties hail the Supreme Court's decision allowing leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgement.
In a setback to the Centre, the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgement and dismissed the government's preliminary objections claiming "privilege" over them.
Opposition parties Wednesday hailed the Supreme Court's decision saying the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government now has "no official secrets act" to hide behind and a probe into the "scam" will take place.
The Centre had submitted that privilege documents were procured by petitioners in an illegal way and used to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018 judgement of the apex court dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
Here is how opposition parties reacted to the SC decision:
1. What SC said
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"We dismiss the preliminary objection raised by Union of India questioning the maintainability of the review petition," a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said.
The apex court said it will go ahead with the hearing on the review petition on the basis of new documents referred by petitioners.
The CJI pronounced the verdict on his behalf and for Justice SK Kaul. The second concurrent judgment was pronounced by Justice KM Joseph, who said he agreed with the conclusion of the judgment written by the CJI.
The chief justice said Justice Joseph agreed with the judgment delivered by him but gave different reasoning.
The judgment makes it clear that during the hearing of the review petition the bench will look into not only the question of pricing of the jet but also selection of Indian offset partner of Dassault which manufactures Rafale.
The top court said review petitions against its December 14 verdict dismissing all petitions against procurement of Rafale jets will be decided on merits.
The apex court said it will fix a date for hearing review petitions.
2. Rahul Gandhi on SC decision
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Rahul Gandhi: Supreme Court has accepted that there is some form of corruption in Rafale deal and that "chowkidaar ne chori karwayi hai".
The Congress has been accusing Modi of helping industrialist Anil Ambani make a profit of Rs 30,000 crore by favouring him as the offset partner in the Rafale deal.
The government has denied any wrongdoing in the fighter jets deal. Anil Ambani has also rejected all allegations.
3. Mayawati seeks apology from PM after SC order
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BSP supremo Mayawati accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misleading the country on the Rafale deal and demanded an apology from him.
In a tweet, Mayawati said, "Modi government's attempts were unsuccessful in hiding discrepancies/corruption in Rafale deal in the name of national security.The BJP government is trapped in the SC".
"PM Modi should apologise for repeatedly lying inside and outside Parliament and misleading the country and the defence minister should resign," she said in the tweet.
4. Sitaram Yechury
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The Left parties Wednesday hailed the decision of the Supreme Court allowing leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of the Rafale judgement and alleged that Narendra Modi government was compromising on national security.
Continuing his attack on the ruling party, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said that through the Rafale fighter jet deal with France, the government "promoted cronyism".
"Modi and his govt have compromised national security for corruption and cronyism in an important defence deal.
"They tried to evade accountability, denied a JPC, hid price from CAG, tried to first mislead, then stall any hearing in Supreme Court. Important that culprits are booked," he tweeted.
5. Arun Shourie, petitioner
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Former union minister Arun Shourie, one of the review petitioners in the Rafale case, Wednesday said he was delighted by the unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court dismissing Centre's "peculiar argument" on admissibility of privileged documents.
We are delighted it is a unanimous verdict dismissing Central government's peculiar argument on admissibility of documents. Centre's argument meant no wrong can be done in the defence deal," he told PTI.
"Our argument was that because the documents relate to Defence you must examine them. You asked for these evidence and we have provided it. So the court has accepted our pleas and rejected the arguments of the government," he said.
Shourie is one of the review petitioners along with former union minister Yashwant Sinha and activist advocate Prashant Bhushan.
6. Defence Ministry of SC order
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The Hon’ble Supreme Court has passed an Order dated 10th April, 2019 on 36 Rafale Procurement Case.
In the Review Petitions, the petitioners have relied upon the documents, some of which could not have been placed in public domain. The Central Government raised an objection that while considering Review Petitions, the said documents may not be considered as they are classified.
In the Order passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court today, the Hon’ble Court has decided to look into the documents also while deciding the Review Petitions. The Review Petitions are pending and are yet to be heard.
The Hon’ble Supreme Court by a well reasoned judgement and order dated 14th December, 2018 had already dismissed the Writ Petitions.
It is reiterated that the petitioners are using documents with the intention to present a selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations on a matter relating to National Security and Defence. The documents presented by the petitioners are failing to bring out how the issues were addressed and resolved and necessary approvals of the competent authorities taken. These are selective and incomplete presentation of the facts and records by the petitioners.
The Government had provided the requisite information as desired by the Hon’ble Supreme Court to the Court and also to the petitioners as per directions of the Court and in the manner prescribed by the Court. The Government also provided all records and files as required by CAG. The main concern of the Government is relating to availability of sensitive and classified information concerning National Security in the public domain.
