In a big relief to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his government, country’s top court Supreme Court on Friday (14) dismissed all petitions seeking a probe into alleged irregularities in the Rs 580 billion Rafale deal signed by India and France.
The apex court said that there is no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France. The bench headed by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi said that there was no proper evidence of commercial favourim to any private party.
A petitioner had sought a court monitored probe into the jet deal whereas another asked for a direction to India’s federal investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register first information report (FIR) for alleged irregularities in the fighter jet deal.
Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph added that it is not the the job of the court to work with the comparative details of the pricing. There has been a necessity for fighter aircrafts and the country can not operate without fighter jets.
The chief justice of India who also read the judgement for the three member judge bench said there were no reason found to interfere in the purchasing process for the fighter jets.
Supreme court has also said in its ruling that it doesn’t find any substantial matter to interfere with the issue of procurement, pricing and offset partner. It noted the need for the introduction of 4th and 5th generation fighter jets like Rafale in the Indian Air Force (IAF). The two parties involved in the agreement clarified that all aspects in the procurement of Rafale jet deal, the court said.
There was no objection for the procurement of the Rafale fighter jet deal when the agreement was finalised in 2016, the court said.
According to the deal signed between Indian and France, it was agreed to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jet in fly-away condition as part of the upgrading process of IAF. The cost of the deal was estimated at Rs 580bn.
The Rafale fighter is a two-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) produced by French aerospace firm Dassault Aviation.
Advocate ML Sharma was the first person to file a petition against the fighter jet deal followed by another advocate Vineet Dhanda for a court monitored investigation into the deal over alleged irregularities.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh had also filed his petition against the deal.
Later, former Indian ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie along with activist advocate Prashant Bhushan filed their petition before the apex court for a direction to the CBI to register FIR over alleged irregularities in the deal.
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