New Delhi: After getting the Rafale fighter jet, the strength of the Indian Air Force has increased tremendously, when these fighter aircraft fly, the enemy countries start trembling with its roar in the sky. But, amid the increasing power of the Air Force, the opposition parties are working hard to prove the Rafale deal a scam, so that political gains can be made against the Modi government. Due to this, the matter has once again reached the threshold of the Supreme Court.
A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court for a re-hearing and investigation in connection with the alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal. However, the Supreme Court has strongly reprimanded the petitioner and made it clear that he cannot hear this issue again and again. In fact, by a judgment in 2018, the Supreme Court, after a full hearing, had ordered that there was no reason to doubt the decision-making process behind the Rafale deal. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had given the green signal to the deal, which was repeatedly accused by the opposition of corruption in the Rs 59,000 crores contract for 36 fighter jets.
Subsequently, in November 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition filed in the case, stating that there was no need for a "roaming inquiry" into the matter. Advocate-petitioner ML Sharma had filed the petition citing a report by the French website Mediapart. On Monday (August 30), a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat flatly refused to summon some new materials that allegedly pointed to the payment of 1.1 million euros by French firm Dassault Aviation to an Indian middleman to facilitate the deal.
The petitioner had urged the Supreme Court to issue notice to the Central government. The court, however, said, "We do not see any merit in this petition. A three-judge bench has already conducted a thorough investigation into the matter and we cannot look into the same issue multiple times.''
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