Centre seeks more time to file affidavit in Rafale deal, asks SC to defer review petition hearing from April 30 to another date

The Central Government, on Monday, has sought more time to file a fresh affidavit in the Rafale review case. It has also requested the Supreme Court to defer the hearing from its original date of April 30.

On April 10, the Supreme Court had unanimously dismissed preliminary objections by the government in the review petitions in the Rafale fighter jet case.

"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 in the top court.

This allowed the court to consider the "unauthorised classified" documents sourced by the media can be considered evidence in the case and a basis for re-examining its December verdict.

Supreme Court Dismisses Preliminary Objections Raised By Government In Rafale Review Petitions, Will Fix Date To Hear Final Arguments

The petitioners former Union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha had hailed the decision stating that 'It's a unanimous judgment in which the government's exceptions have been rejected.'

The Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, representing the Centre had submitted that the review petitions were based on “stolen” Rafale documents, which are not admissible in evidence.

On March 14, the government had filed a fresh affidavit in the apex court in the Rafale case, saying that "unauthorised-accessed" documents related to "internal secret deliberations" had been presented in a "selective" manner to mislead the court and amounted to damaging national security.

The government said national security was at stake and the leak of the documents amounted to offences under the Official Secrets Act.The Centre had explained that the disclosure of Rafale prices had upset a “solemn undertaking” given to France to keep the price of the jets a secret.

The Supreme Court had later fixed the date to hear Rafale review petitions on April 30. On December 14, 2018, SC had given a judgment wherein it had dismissed all petitions seeking court-monitored probe into Rafale fighter jet deal with France, saying that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the deal. The top court had also said that it was not its job to go into the issue of pricing of fighter planes.