SC agrees to consider early hearing on PIL for review of Rafale verdict
CJI Gogoi, however, refused to give specific date for hearing saying that an appropriate bench of SC is yet to be constituted.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday that it would look into the request for an early hearing on whether its verdict giving a clean chit to government on the Rafale deal should be reviewed.
"This requires constituting a bench of different composition of judges to hear all the petitions. It has to be examined. Let me see," Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.
However, there are four petitions including the government for the correction of an error in the verdict. The Centre wants a correction in the part where the verdict states that “CAG report on the Rafale deal was placed before Parliament; the report was put pout after that, in the session that ended on February 13”.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeks actions against the officers who had “misled” the court by claiming that the auditor had submitted the report to Parliament.
In another petition, Bhushan also asks court to review its order that the government followed the decision making process in the deal with France for the jets.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh has also requested a review.
In December, the Supreme Court said there was no reason to doubt the decision-making process behind the Rafale case amid Congress allegations of corruption in the 2016 jet deal.