SC allows withdrawing PIL for fresh enquiry into 2015 Rafale deal citing French portal revelation of bribe
Aug 29, 2022
New Delhi [India], August 29 : The Supreme Court of India on Monday allowed to withdraw public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a fresh setup of enquiry into the 2015 Rafale deal after a French news portal allegedly revealed payment of bribe by Dassault Aviation to an Indian middleman.
The petitions against the Rafale deal were earlier dismissed in December 2018 and the review was also rejected in November 2019 by the Supreme Court of India.
The bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit comprising of justice Ravinder Bhat on Monday after hearing the submission of Petitioner ML Sharma said no case is made out to Interference of this court. The SC dismissed the plea initially later Advocate ML Sharma requested that he wants to withdraw the plea, considering the prayer the court later allowed him to withdraw the matter.
Petitioner sought an enquiry into new revelations by a French media portal which reported that the aircraft manufacturers, Dassault Aviation, had paid 1 million euros to a controversial Indian middleman Sushen Gupta.
In his plea, Advocate ML Sharma sought direction to revisit the enquiry and also sought registration of cases under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. The petitioner had also made Prime Minister Narender Modi a party in the case. It further that the agreement to procure the fighter jets from Dassault Aviation was an "outcome of corruption"
In November 2019, the three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, led by then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, had dismissed petitions seeking a review of the December 14, 2018 judgment upholding the Rafale Purchase.
The review petitioners, including former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, had alleged that the government concealed crucial facts and misled the supreme court into giving a favourable verdict. They had sought the registration of an FIR and a CBI probe into their complaint against the Rafale purchase.
