The Supreme Court will on Thursday pronounce its judgement on Rafale review petitions against its December 14, 2018 order upholding the fighter jet deal.
The Supreme Court had reserved its order on the review petitions this May.
Three petitioners, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan had claimed in the Supreme Court that the Centre played fraud upon the court to obtain favourable order in the Rafale fighter jet case.
The petitioners filed a rejoinder stating the December 14, 2018 verdict should be subjected to a review as it was based on “multiple falsehoods and suppression of material and relevant information”.
However, the top court had earlier dismissed the plea filed by Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan, seeking investigation into alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal.
On May 4, the Centre had filed a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court in the Rafale case, opposing the reopening of the whole matter by contending that the petitioners were attempting to get “a fishing and roving inquiry ordered”.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had on 10 April admitted three documents connected to the Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal as evidence in the review petitions and dismissed the Centre’s “preliminary objections” to them.
The Supreme Court on December 14 last year gave a clean chit to the Centre on the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed all the petitions and said that no probe was required.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will also deliver its verdict on a contempt plea filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the court his “chowkidar chor hai” slogan.
“The Supreme Court has made it clear that ‘chowkidarji’ (watchman) has committed a theft,” Gandhi had told reporters during a rally in Amethi.
Lekhi, then filed a criminal contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi, following which, the court said the remark was “incorrectly attributed” to it.
Following the observations, Rahul Gandhi had tendered “unconditional apology” to the Supreme Court.
Rahul Gandhi has filed a three-page affidavit stating his unconditional apology to the apex court.
In the affidavit, Gandhi stated that he had “unintentionally and inadvertently” linked its Rafale case order to his “Chowkidar chor hai” phrase against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“(Rahul Gandhi) unconditionally apologises for the wrongful attributions to this Hon’ble Court. The Deponent further states that any such attributions were entirely unintentional, non-willful and inadvertent,” the affidavit said.
Gandhi further said that “he holds the court in the highest esteem and respect” and “never sought or intended to, directly or indirectly, commit any act that interferes with the process of administration of justice.”
He also requested the top court to close the contempt proceedings against him.