The Congress has been demanding the Modi government to disclose the price at which the fighter jets are being purchased from France. (File Photo)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear next week a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking stay on the Rafale fighter jet deal between India with France. The Opposition led by the Congress has been demanding a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the jet deal.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submissions of advocate M L Sharma that his plea be listed for urgent hearing.
In his PIL, Sharma alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought stay on it.
While the Congress has been alleging that the Rafale deal was a "scam", the allegations have been refuted by the government.
The Congress claims that the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had inked an offset contract with inked Dassault Aviation in the shape of a work share agreement on March 13, 2014, but it was "snatched away from the HAL and given to private company Reliance Defence, which does not have any work experience, for Rs 30,000 crore".
Reliance group has refuted the charges of any undue benefit from the deal and has already sent legal notices to a number of Congress leaders asking them to "cease and desist" from levelling these allegations.
