Four petitions challenging Rafale deal failed to satisfy SC

Four writ petitions were filed against the government decision to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets but none of the petitioners including former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie were able to satisfy the Supreme Court to register FIR by the CBI for court-monitored probe.

Sinha and Shourie along with activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan were the last among the petitioners to knock at the doors of the apex court complaining that the CBI did not register FIR on October 4 when they had approached the agency.

According to them, their complaint disclosed a prima facie evidence of commission of a cognisable offence under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and prayed for a direction for registration of an FIR and investigation of the same and submitting periodic status reports to the court.

Their petition along with three others was dismissed by a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph saying that perception of individuals cannot be the basis of a "fishing and roving enquiry" by this court, especially in such matters.

Besides Sinha and Shourie, who have left the BJP, Sanjay Singh, the AAP MP, was the third petitioner in the matter alleging illegality and non-transparency in the procurement process.

He had sought investigation into the reasons for 'cancellation of earlier deal' for the procurement of 126 fighter jets and a scrutiny of the court into the alteration of pricing and how a 'novice' company, that is, Reliance Defence came to replace the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd as the Offset partner.

Singh had also prayed for cancellation of Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) and registration of an FIR into the alleged irregularities.

The bench noted that before these politicians' pleas, after the statement of former French President Francois Hollande in september on the deal, advocate M L Sharma filed the first petition followed by another lawyer Vineet Dhanda and both of them sought quashing of the IGA of 2016 for purchase of 36 Rafale Jets and lodging of FIR against prominent public servants and private parties allegedly involved in the deal.