SC junks pleas against Rafale deal
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday junked petitions seeking court-monitored probe into the Rafale jet deal saying that there was “nothing questionable” in the decision-making process and the bench was not competent to go into the question of pricing and the choice of offset partner by Rafale manufacturer Dassault.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it “sees no reason to intervene” in the defence deal as the four petitions sought a court-monitored probe into the deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets in a fly-away condition from Dassault Aviation.
The Centre had defended the deal while admitting that there was “no sovereign guarantee from France, but there is a letter of comfort…”
The petitions seeking the probe were filed by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, advocates M.L.Sharma and Vineet Dhanda, and AAP lawmaker in Parliament Sanjay Singh.
