Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain PIL Seeking Probe Into Rafale Deal Based On Reports Of French Agency

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking inquiry into the Rafale deal in the light of certain reports in a French news portal alleging payment of bribe by Dassault Aviation to an Indian middleman.A bench comprising Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat considered the PIL filed by Advocate ML Sharma, which made Narendra Modi as the first respondent in personal capacity. The bench initially dismissed the petition saying that no case for interference by the Supreme Court has been made out by the petitioner. After the order was dictated, Sharma made a further request seeking permission to withdraw the petition. Accepting the subsequent request, the bench altered the order and dismissed the petition as withdrawn.When the matter was taken, Sharma said that he was confining the case to certain facts have emerged on the investigation conducted by a French agency. He sought for directions for issuing Letters Rugatory by Indian agencies for summoning the documents from France. He pointed out that he has made a complaint before the CBI.However, the bench expressed disinclination to interfere. "Either you withdraw this or we dismiss. We won't say anything about the CBI", CJI Lalit said.Sharma continued with the arguments and the bench passed the following order after hearing him."Having gone through the facts and circumstances, in our view, no case is made out to exercise jurisdiction of this court under Article. Petition dismissed".After some time, Sharma mentioned the case again seeking permission to withdraw. The bench allowed this and dismissed the petition as withdrawn."I can go to the CBI", Sharma said."Nobody is stopping you", CJI Lalit replied.In his petition , Sharma seeks directions to quash the deal to procure 36 fighter jets from French company Dassault Aviation as an "outcome of corruption and violation of Articles 13, 21, and 253 of the Constitution of India".Sharma has further prayed for an investigation to be conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after registration of an FIR against the Respondent Nos. 1 and 2, which includes current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under PC Act of 1988, read with Sections 409, 420 and 120-B of IPC and Section 3 of the Official Secret Act, 1923. He has sought for the report to be filed before the Apex Court. The plea is an outcome of an investigation report by France's anti-corruption agency, Agence Française Anticorruption (AGA), wherein it was declared that Dassault had paid a bribe of 1 million Euros to middlemen in India. "Due to political pressure, prosecution upon AFA's report has been suspended/stayed. It's a serious offence under Secret Act, 1923, injuries financial and defence to the country. It's violated Art. 21 and 13 of the Constitution of India", submits the plea and calls for the investigation report to be brought before the Court. Sharma had filed a writ petition in 2018 seeking enquiry into the Rafale deal, which was dismissed in December 2018.Later, in November 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed review petitions that had been filed against the December 14, 2018 judgement which declined to order probe into the corruption allegations regarding the deal to procure 36 Rafale jets by Indian Government from the French company Dassault Aviation. A Bench comprising of then CJI Ranjan Gogoi, and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph had observed that the review petition filed by Advocate Prashant Bhushan, former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie lacked merits. The review pleas had been filed on the ground that certain documents had been leaked by the media which showcased that the Government had suppressed material information from the Court.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain PIL Seeking Probe Into Rafale Deal Based On Reports Of French Agency

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