India’s top court, Supreme Court on Friday (14) will pronounce its ruling on the petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into India’s multi billion dollar Rafale fighter jet deal with France.
Earlier, a bench headed by Supreme Court chief justice Ranjan Gogoi had reserved its judgement on a batch of petitions on November 14 which sought apex court's intervention into the deal over alleged irregularities.
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 agreed to supply Rafale fighter jets to India.
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 India’s federal probe agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register FIR for alleged irregularities in the deal.
Meanwhile, the Indian government defended the deal and dismissed any irregularities as alleged by the opposition party leaders. The government has also rejected public disclosure of the pricing details.
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 Indian Air Force (IAF). The cost of the deal is estimated at Rs 580 billion.
The Rafale fighter is a two-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) produced by French aerospace firm Dassault Aviation.
