Rafale Deal Case: SC reserves verdict on petitions demanding probe

Background

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on pleas seeking court monitored probe in procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. The sensitive pricing details of the 36 Rafale fighter jets which have been submitted by the Centre in a sealed cover will be examined by a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph. On Monday, the Centre placed in a sealed cover before the apex court, the price details of the jets that India is buying from France. The court had last month sought more information from the government on the deal, including details of its pricing. On the last hearing, the Centre was reluctant to share the price details and Attorney General K K Venugopal had told a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that pricing details of these jets were not even shared with Parliament. The Centre also made public the document titled "Details of the steps in the decision making process leading to the award of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft order", which stated that the process as laid down in the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 has been followed in the procurement of the Rafale aircraft. The petitioners are likely to respond to the contents of the documents in which it has been stated by the government that the deal for 36 Rafale jets was negotiated on "better terms" and the Defence Procurement Procedure laid out in 2013 were "completely followed". India had signed an agreement with France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in a fly-away condition as part of the upgrading process of the Indian Air Force equipment. The estimated cost of the deal is Rs 58,000 crore. On Tuesday, in a media interview, Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier defended the contract and claimed no wrongdoing in the deal, asserting it was a “clean deal”. He asserted that his company chose Reliance as an offset partner. The Congress, however, dismissed his claims as "manufactured lies".

15:50 PM (IST)  •  14 Nov 2018

CJI Ranjan Gogoi after hearing senior Indian Air Force officials on issue of Rafale Deal says "The Air Marshal and Vice-Marshals can go back. It is a different war game here in court. You can go to the actual war rooms."

15:27 PM (IST)  •  14 Nov 2018

Rafale hearing ends. Supreme Court reserves its verdict on pleas seeking a court-monitored probe into the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.

14:52 PM (IST)  •  14 Nov 2018

Centre tells the Supreme Court that there is no sovereign guarantee from French government on delivery of 36 Rafale jets but there is a letter of comfort from the French Prime Minister.

14:45 PM (IST)  •  14 Nov 2018

Supreme Court asks Additional Secretary Defence as to why the offset guidelines were changed in 2015. What about country's interest? What if the offset partner doesn't do any production?

14:41 PM (IST)  •  14 Nov 2018

Supreme Court asks about the change in offset guidelines in 2015. Addl Secretary of the Defence Ministry explains the defence offset guideline to the court and says that the offset contract runs concurrently with the main contract. AG KK Venugopal appearing for the Centre says, Dassault has not yet submitted details of offset partner to government.