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Supreme Court reserves verdict on Rafale review plea

Mr. Bhushan argued that the December 14 judgment proceeded on the wrong basis that the petitioners were seeking cancellation of the deal.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved verdict in the petition seeking review of the December 14, 2018, judgment that had declined to order a CBI or SIT probe into the alleged irregularities in the deal to procure 36 Rafale aircraft from French company Dassault aviation.

A Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K.M. Joseph reserved orders after the conclusion of arguments from Prashant Bhushan, one of the petitioners along with Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and Attorney General K.K. Venugopal for the Centre.

Mr. Bhushan argued that the December 14 judgment proceeded on the wrong basis that the petitioners were seeking cancellation of the deal, failing to consider that the petitioners were actually praying for a court monitored probe. He drew the attention of the court to a document purported to be a note from the ministry of defence regarding “eight last minute changes” that were approved by the Defence Acquisition Council. He argued that based on this document, the Cabinet Committee on Security met in September 2016 to drop standard clauses in the deal.

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