Supreme Court agrees to hear in open court Rafale review pleas

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to hear in “open court” the review petitions filed by former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan and the application filed by the Centre for review/modification of the Rafale judgment, giving a clean chit to the NDA government in the deal.

The Centre filed an application on December 15, 2018, to modify the December 14 verdict of the apex court. Thereafter, Mr Bhushan, Mr Shourie and Mr Sinha along with Aam Admi Party MP Sanjay Singh filed review petitions for reconsideration and all petitions are not listed for hearing though two months had passed.

In a brief order after hearing in the chambers on Tuesday, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K.M. Joseph said, “The prayer for open court hearing is allowed. List the matters for hearing in open court.”

The order did not mention the date of listing the petitions.

The Centre wants a correction in the part where the verdict states that “CAG report on the Rafale deal was placed before Parliament; the report was placed in Parliament only on February 13. The Centre in its application submitted that the judgment erred in English grammar to “misinterpret” information submitted to it in a “sealed cover note” about the pricing of the 36 Rafale jets’ deal.

Mr Bhushan and others contended that the judgment is riddled with fault lines. They wanted the apex court to re-consider its “erroneous” judgment, which relies on a“non-existent” CAG report to uphold the Rafale deal. They also wanted initiating proceedings u/s 195 of CrPC for perjury against officials who made false statements.