Supreme Court to hear fresh plea on Rafale deal on 10 Oct; PIL seeks order to Centre to reveal prices of jets under UPA, NDA

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a fresh public interest litigation (PIL) on the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France. In the PIL, the petitioner has sought a direction to the Centre to reveal details of the agreement and comparative prices agreed upon during the tenures of both the United Progressive Alliance and the incumbent National Democratic Alliance to the top court in a sealed cover. [caption id=“attachment_5281451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of the Supreme Court of India. AP[/caption] A bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph will hear the PIL filed by lawyer Vineet Dhanda on 10 October. On 18 September, the Supreme Court had adjourned the hearing on a plea seeking a stay on the Rafale deal between India and France. A bench of CJI Gogoi and justices Joseph and Navin Sinha had adjourned the matter till 10 October after petitioner, advocate ML Sharma, told the court that he wanted to file additional documents in the case and sought an adjournment in the matter. “You yourself circulated a letter seeking adjournment on the grounds of ill health. Now, you say that you want to file additional documents. We are simply adjourning the matter till 10 October,” the bench had said. In his petition, Sharma alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought a stay on it. His petition says that the inter-government agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets must be quashed as it was an “outcome of corruption” and not ratified by Parliament under Article 253 of the Constitution, as per which, Parliament has the power to make any law to implement any inter-government agreement. Rafale deal is a defence agreement signed between the governments of India and France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in a fly-away condition as a part of the upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation. Indian Air Force had advanced a proposal to buy 126 fighter aircraft in August 2007 and floated a tender. Following this, an invitation was sent to various aviation companies to participate in the bidding process. With inputs from agencies