Top Court Miffed Over ‘Defective Review Petitions’ In Rafale Case
Last month, the apex court dismissed a batch of pleas challenging the Rafale deal between India and France.
The Supreme Court expressed unhappiness over some lawyers filing “defective petitions” and seeking wide publicity in the media, while referring to review pleas challenging its verdict in the Rafale case.
"The other side is not so innocent. The petitioners go to media and claim wide publicity," the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said while referring to defective review petitions filed challenging its verdict in the Rafale case.
The apex court's observation came when it was hearing lawyers mentioning cases for urgent listing and hearing. The chief justice of India has asked the registrar of the apex court to come and witness the mentioning proceedings so that the registry officials can get their act right and work more efficiently.
Earlier, the apex court had on Dec. 14 dismissed a batch of pleas challenging the deal between India and France for procurement of 36 Rafale jets, saying there was no occasion to "really doubt the decision-making process" warranting setting aside of the contract.
The apex court had rejected the pleas seeking lodging of an FIR and a court-monitored probe in to alleged irregularities in the Rs 58,000-crore deal, in which both the countries have entered into an inter-governmental agreement.
Several petitions seeking review of the verdict, including one by Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Sanjay Singh, have been filed in the apex court.
The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine medium multi role combat aircraft manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.