Rafale Deal Case: SC reserves verdict on petitions demanding probe

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on pleas seeking court monitored probe in procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. The sensitive pricing details of the 36 Rafale fighter jets which have been submitted by the Centre in a sealed cover will be examined by a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph. On Monday, the Centre placed in a sealed cover before the apex court, the price details of the jets that India is buying from France. The court had last month sought more information from the government on the deal, including details of its pricing. On the last hearing, the Centre was reluctant to share the price details and Attorney General K K Venugopal had told a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that pricing details of these jets were not even shared with Parliament. The Centre also made public the document titled "Details of the steps in the decision making process leading to the award of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft order", which stated that the process as laid down in the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 has been followed in the procurement of the Rafale aircraft. The petitioners are likely to respond to the contents of the documents in which it has been stated by the government that the deal for 36 Rafale jets was negotiated on "better terms" and the Defence Procurement Procedure laid out in 2013 were "completely followed". India had signed an agreement with France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in a fly-away condition as part of the upgrading process of the Indian Air Force equipment. The estimated cost of the deal is Rs 58,000 crore. On Tuesday, in a media interview, Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier defended the contract and claimed no wrongdoing in the deal, asserting it was a “clean deal”. He asserted that his company chose Reliance as an offset partner. The Congress, however, dismissed his claims as "manufactured lies".