SC reserves order on pleas seeking court-monitored probe into Rafale deal : The Tribune India

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SC reserves order on pleas seeking court-monitored probe into Rafale deal

NEW DELHI: Following a four-hour marathon hearing, the Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France under an inter-government agreement.

SC reserves order on pleas seeking court-monitored probe into Rafale deal

Deputy Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal V R Chaudhari with Air Marshal Anil Khosla (R) leave the Supreme Court after a hearing on Rafale Deal, in New Delhi on Wednesday, November 14, 2018. PTI



Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 14

Following a four-hour marathon hearing, the Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France under an inter-government agreement.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph reserved the verdict on the contentious issue after hearing arguments from counsel for the petitioners, including Prashant Bhushan, senior journalist Arun Shourie and Attorney General KK Venugopal who defended secrecy clause.

Alleging irregularities in the deal, petitioners ML Sharma, Prashant Bhushan, Vineet Dhanda and Sanjay Singh demanded registration of an FIR and a court-monitored investigation into it.

Venugopal said the decision on types of aircraft and weapons needed to be procured was a matter for experts and could not be adjudicated upon by the judiciary. “Even Parliament has not been told about the complete cost of jets,” he said defending the non-disclosure clause of Rafale deal.

“I decided not to peruse it myself as in a case of any leak, my office would be held responsible,” the AG said.

“The decision we need to take is whether to bring the fact on pricing in public domain or not,” the bench said, adding discussion on price will be considered if it thought that it should come in the public domain.

Venugopal said though there was no sovereign guarantee, there was a letter of comfort issued by the French government which was as good as a sovereign guarantee.

Perhaps for the first time four senior IAF officers – three Air Marshalls and an Air Vice Marshall – and Additional Secretary (Defence) appeared in the top court to explain various aspects of a defence deal.

“We are dealing with the requirements of the Air Force and would like to ask an Air Force officer on Rafale jets. We want to hear from an Air Force officer and not the official of the Defence Ministry on the issue,” the bench said prompting the AG to assure it that they would be available in 10 minutes.

CJI Gogoi asked several questions about previous acquisitions and which generation of aircraft IAF was using. Air Vice Marshall J Chalapathi told the Bench that the last acquisition was Sukhoi-30 and before that Mirage Aircraft were bought in 1985. He said while most of the countries were using 4th and 5th generation fighter planes, IAF was using 3rd or sub-4th generation (3.5) aircraft.

After getting answers from the IAF officers, the Bench said they were free to go. “The Air Marshalls and Air Vice Marshall can go now. This (court) is a different war room. You can go to the actual war room,” the CJI told them.

Following the court’s October 31 order, the Centre had on Monday submitted in a sealed cover the pricing details of 36 Rafale jets.

The process of acquisition had started in 2001 and India was to purchase 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) but the contract negations reached a stalemate and Request for Proposal compliance was finally withdrawn in June 2015. During the protracted process India’s adversaries modernised their combact capabilities, the AG submitted.

It was in this background that India signed an agreement with France in September 2016 for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in a fly-away condition as part of upgrading process of the Indian Air Force equipment. It has better deliverables, the AG said, adding norms prescribed under Defence Procurement Policy -2013 were followed.

The estimated cost of the deal is Rs 58,000 crore.

Venugopal said at the exchange rate of November 2016, the cost of a bare fighter jet was Rs 670 crore. He, however, said earlier the jets were not to be loaded with requisite weapons system and the reservation of the government was due to the fact that it did not want to violate the clause of the Inter Government Agreement and the secrecy clause. Presently France, Egypt and Qatar are flying Rafale fighter jets.

Describing Rafale aircraft as potent, Venugopal said, “Had we possessed Rafale during the Kargil war, we could have avoided huge casualties as Rafale is capable of hitting targets from a distance of 60 km.”

“Mr Attorney, Kargil was in 1999-2000? Rafale came in 2014,” pointed out the CJI.

“I said it hypothetically,” responded the AG.

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