On the 10th of April, the Supreme Court (SC) passed a ruling, saying the papers claimed as “privilege” by the Ministry of Defence were now admissible.
The case comes as a major win to the petitioners as they had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the SC’s statements. The SC said, the details about the purchase of the Rafale flights were stolen and illegally published and therefore, they should not be a part of the review of the case heard on the 14th of December 2018.
The purchase of the Rafale jets has been in the news ever since the Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 2014. In April 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Government announced, India would buy 36 twin fighter jets, called the Rafale Fighter Jets from Dassault Aviation.
The initial plan was to buy only 18 jets from Dassault, while the other 108 jets will be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL.)
However, because of some initial problems with the deal, Modi went ahead and announced India was buying 36 ready to fly Rafale jets, instead of the previously agreed 18 planes from France.
By September 2016, India signed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA,) according to which, it would pay the French Government Rs. 58,000 crores for the jets.
With about 15 % of the amount paid in advance, India was also set to get weapons like Scalp missiles and the Meteor.
A year after the IGA was signed, the Indian National Congress (INC) started making allegations that not all the facts about the deal were disclosed and that there was a severe lack of transparency in the entire case.
The INC also said, the Anil Ambani led Reliance Defence Limited was unfairly chosen to be the Indian partner for this deal. According to the INC, Reliance Defence Limited had no previous experience in dealing with aircrafts.
What further triggered the already brewing controversy was when Francois Hollande, the President of France, said, the French Government had no role in picking Reliance Defence to be its counterpart.
Listening to a petition filed by Arun Shourie, Prashanth Bhushan and Yashwant Sinha, the Supreme Court, on the 10th of April, said, the Modi led Government has no choice but to disclose all the details of the Rafale deal.
The three bench judge, consisting of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Krishan Kaul and K.M. Joseph, said, the clean chit awarded to the BJP was now null and void.
The Supreme Court, while passing its ruling also said, with the details of the deal being made public by The Hindu first and then the ANI, the BJP has no choice but to include them during the hearing of the case.
