Rafale fighter jet
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to file an affidavit saying the pricing of the Rafale jet is exclusive and can't be shared with the court.
The apex court's order came after Attorney General K K Venugopal said that the pricing of jet is something exclusive and can't be shared.
The Supreme Court also made it clear that it doesn't want technical details pertaining to Rafale deal.
"In none of the PILs, suitability and technical aspects of Rafale deal have been challenged," the court said.
The apex court also sought additional information like details of India offset partner from Centre in next 10 days.
The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions against the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France.
These petitions also include the joint plea filed by former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie along with activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
Earlier, the bench had directed the Centre to provide in a sealed cover the “details of the steps” taken in the decision-making process leading to the deal
The apex court’s directions had come before the trio had filed the petition.
The directions were passed on October 10 on the two PILs filed by lawyers M L Sharma and Vineet Dhanda.
The top court, however, had observed that the averments made in the two PILs were “grossly inadequate” and had said that it was not issuing the notice on them.
The bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, had made clear that its direction to the Centre was issued to satisfy itself about legitimacy of the decision making process for procuring 36 Rafale fighter jets.
Later, two other petitions were filed by Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh respectively against the deal.
Now as many as four PILs are pending adjudication before the top court against the deal.
Two former union ministers and Bhushan have sought registration of an FIR into the fighter jet deal between India and France alleging “criminal misconduct” by high public functionaries.
The trio has also sought a direction to CBI to investigate the offences mentioned in their complaint in a “time-bound” manner and submit periodic status reports to the apex court.
They have claimed that in 2007 tenders were issued by the Ministry of Defence for the purchase of 126 fighter aircraft and it was specified in the Request for Proposal that 18 of these aircraft would be purchased from abroad in a ‘fly-away’ condition. The remaining 108 were to be manufactured in India in the factory of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with transfer of technology from the foreign vendor.
The plea said that Dassault Company manufacturing the Rafale aircraft was declared the lowest tenderer and thereafter price negotiations began which were at a very advanced stage by March 25, 2015.
“However within 15 days of this, the Prime Minister of India and the President of France announced a totally new deal jettisoning the virtually complete 126 aircraft deal and the Prime Minister on behalf of India agreed to purchase only 36 Rafale aircraft in a ‘fly-away’ condition without any transfer of technology and make in India.
(With PTI inputs)
