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Can't wait till end of polls to hear Rafale pleas: Supreme Court

Top court rejects Centre’s request to buy more time, grants it 4 days to respond

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The Centre failed to have its say to get the Rafale review petitions adjourned beyond the General Elections after the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to file its response by Saturday and be prepared to argue the case next Monday.

Showing firmness in deciding the review petitions one way or the other, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph asked Attorney General KK Venugopal why no response had been filed to the review petitions.

Venugopal said that till date, no notice has been issued to the Centre on the review petitions.

It was only on April 10, the SC decided the preliminary objection by allowing the petitioners to rely on some classified documents as evidence to seek review of the SC judgment of December 14, 2018 by which all petitions seeking independent probe into the Rafale deal stood dismissed.

With the top court agreeing to hear the review, the Centre wished to be heard and sought four weeks time to file its response. But the bench was in no mood to delay the matter any further. It ordered the Centre to file its response by end of this week and adjourned the case to Monday. The Court was open to issue notice on the review petitions.

The review petitioners include former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan among others. Bhushan has even filed perjury application against the Attorney General accusing him of supplying false information to SC in sealed cover.

This dispute arose after the SC gave a clean chit to Centre on the premise that the Comptroller and Auditor General had examined the entire Rafale deal and submitted report in Parliament. This was later denied by the Centre, which moved an application seeking amendment in the judgment. This application too is listed for hearing along with the review petitions.

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