Cong plea bears no fruit as SC gives clean chit to BJP govt in Rafale case

Allegations levelled against the Centre by the Opposition Congress for over three years bore no fruit as the Supreme Court on Thursday (November 14) gave a clean chit to the Narendra Modi government in the Rafale fighter jets deal case, saying review petitions were without merit.

The apex court rejected pleas which had sought re-examination of its December 14, 2018 verdict which said there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets. The apex court also rejected the contention that there was need for registration of FIR in connection with the deal.

“We find the review petitions are without any merit,” a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, said.

Congress has been alleging that the BJP government had bought the fighter jets at much higher cost than original. It questioned why was state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) kept out of the deal and why Reliance Defence Limited, which allegedly had no experience in manufacturing fighter jets, was chosen as offset partner.