SC reserves verdict in review, questions tech transfer in case

The top court reserved its verdict on pleas, including the one filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan, seeking review of its December 14 judgment which gave clean chit to the Centre’s Rafale deal to procure jets from the French firm, Dassault.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi referred to a judgment in the Lalita Kumari case which said that an FIR is must when information revealed commission of cognizable offence. “The question is whether you are obliged to follow the Lalita Kumari judgment or not.” Attorney General K K Venugopal told the bench, also comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, that “there has to be a prima facie case, otherwise they (agencies) cannot proceed. The information must disclose commission of cognizable offence”. Justice Joseph referred to the earlier deal and asked the Centre as to why the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) on Rafale with the French administration does not have the clause of transfer of technology. “The court cannot decide such technical aspects,” the law officer said. On the court’s question of waiver of sovereign guarantee by France in the IGA and its replacement with a letter of comfort, Venugopal said it was not an “unprecedented practice” and referred to such agreements with Russia and the US where there was such a waiver. “It is a question of national security. No other court in the world will examine a defence deal on these kinds of arguments,” he said.

The apex court had said in the December verdict that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets and dismissed the petitions seeking an investigation into alleged irregularities in the Rs 58,000 crore deal.

Meanwhile, the SC reserved its verdict on the criminal contempt petition filed against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for attributing the words “chowkidar chor hai” to the top court. More on P11