Closely examined Rafale fighter jet prices of 2007 & 2016; not court's job to compare: SC

The Supreme Court said on Friday that despite having "examined closely" the pricing details of the basic Rafale fighter jet under the original Request For Proposal (RFP) of 2007 and the one under the Inter-Government Agreement (IGA) in 2016 to "satisfy its conscience", it cannot go into cost comparison as its not the job of court.

The top court said despite its initial disinclination to even go into the issue of pricing, the Centre was directed to place the cost details of the aircraft in sealed cover, just to satisfy the conscience of the court.

It said the government has not disclosed the pricing details except for the basic cost of the aircraft even to Parliament on the ground of sensitivity of pricing details and national security, apart from the issues of breach of the agreement between the two countries -- India and France.

In relief to the Modi government, the Supreme Court Friday dismissed the 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 deal is estimated to be Rs 58,000 crore, or about USD 8 billion.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph said the central government despite its reluctance, placed the material regarding costs of the aircrafts before the Court to satisfy its conscience.

"We have examined closely the price details and comparison of the prices of the basic aircraft along with escalation costs as under the original RFP (of 2007) as well as under the IGA. We have also gone through the explanatory note on the costing, item wise," the bench said.

It noted that the pricing details of 36 Rafale fighter jets are stated to be covered by Article 10 of the IGA between India and France, which provides for protection of classified information and material exchanged under the IGA and it would be governed by the provisions of the Security Agreement signed between both the governments on January 25, 2008.

"It is certainly not the job of this Court to carry out a comparison of the pricing details in matters like the present. We say no more as the material has to be kept in a confidential domain," the bench said.

It further said that even Chief of the Air Staff is stated to have communicated his reservation regarding the disclosure of the pricing details, including regarding the weaponry which could adversely affect national security.

The central government has claimed that there is a commercial advantage in the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft and that there are certain better terms in IGA qua the maintenance and weapon package, it noted.

The pricing details were however shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the report of CAG was examined by the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament and only a redacted portion of the CAG report was placed before the Parliament which is in public domain, the court said.

Petitioners including advocates M L Sharma, Vineet Dhanda, AAP leader Sanjay Singh and former union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan had challenged the pricing details of 36 fighter jets on the ground that there were huge escalations in costs, as per the materials available in public domain.