New Delhi (NVI): Supreme Court today dismissed the two review petitions against its late last year’s Rafale verdict citing “lack of merit” in them.
The petitions had sought a review of the apex court’s December 14 judgment dismissing the appeal for a court-monitored probe into the India-France deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets.
The today’s decision was pronounced by a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph are other members of the bench, reports said.
One petition was jointly filed by former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan while the other was filed by Aam Admi Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on 10th May this year.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict to dismiss the review petitions in the Rafale case and said that ” the NDA Government stands vindicated”.
The allegation of corruption in Rafale deal was nothing but an attempt to malign the clean & honest image of PM Modi & his Govt.
The people of India will not forgive the Congress for their slanderous campaign and calumny. The Congress should apologise for misleading the people.
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) November 14, 2019
He further said that the SC verdict was also a judgement on the Government’s transparency in decision making.
Taking to Twitter Rajnath Singh said, “The purchase of Rafale jets was done in a completely transparent manner, keeping in mind the urgency to update and upgrade India’s defence preparedness”.
“The allegations made by certain political parties and their leaders in Rafale jet purchase were extremely unfortunate, unwarranted and laced with malicious intent. The people of India will not forgive the Congress for their slanderous campaign and calumny. The Congress should apologise for misleading the people,” he said.
-nad
