Rafale deal row: Supreme Court to hear review petition on March 14

The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday, March 14, the review petition against its December 14 order in the Rafale deal row.

The government on Wednesday, March 13, filed a fresh affidavit in the apex court in the Rafale case, saying that unauthorisedly-accessed documents related to internal secret deliberations had been presented in a selective manner to mislead the court and amounted to damaging national security.

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The Ministry of Defence sought dismissal of both the review petition and the miscellaneous application in the matter while contending that it has become imperative for the Union of India to seek removal of these documents from the record of the Review Petition and Miscellaneous application filed by the petitioners.

It told the court that the documents attached by the petitioners in the Rafale review case are sensitive to national security and relate to war capacity of the combat aircraft. The government said the unauthorised photocopying of such documents has adversely affected the sovereignty, security and friendly relations with the foreign countries.

Those who have conspired in this leakage are guilty of penal offences including theft by unauthorized photocopying and leakage of sensitive official documents affecting national security. These matters are now subject of an internal inquiry which commenced on February 28, the affidavit said.

It is of utmost concern to the central government to find out where the leakage took place so that in future the sanctity of decision-making process in governance is maintained, the Defence Ministry said.

The petitioners are using unauthorisedly accessed documents with the intention to present a selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations on a matter relating to national security and defence, it said.

The affidavit came days after details of some internal documents of the Defence Ministry related to the Rafale fighter deal came out in a section of the media.
Since the review petition has been widely circulated and is available in the public domain, the same is available to the enemy/our adversaries. This puts the National Security in jeopardy, the government contended.

The affidavit said secrecy was envisaged in the various agreements that the central government had entered into with the concerned foreign government and others relating to matters of national security.

Even though the central government maintains secrecy, the petitioners and the deponent of the affidavit of the review petition are guilty of leakage of sensitive information, which offends the terms of the agreements, it said.

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Petitioners have no authority whatsoever to produce the same before this Court without the explicit permission of the Government of India, Ministry of Defence. In fact, the said documents produced by the petitioners unauthorisedly are also exempt from disclosure under Section 8 (1) (a) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the affidavit said.

Those who have conspired in this leakage are guilty of penal offences under the Indian Penal Code including theft by unauthorized photocopying and leakage of sensitive official documents affecting National Security, the government said.