New Delhi: On Thursday, The Supreme Court heard the pleas to review the December 14 Rafale order passed by the top court. A day before the crucial hearing, the Centre, in an affidavit, told the apex court that the review petitions were based on documents stolen from the Defence Ministry. During the proceedings on Thursday, Attorney General KK Venugopal argued that the court should remove leaked pages from the petitions as the government claims privilege over the documents. The court, however, said that the petitioners had already submitted the documents.

Venugopal said during the arguments "Supreme Court should direct removal of the leaked pages from the review petitions as the government claims privilege over these documents,". SC said "What privilege do you (Attorney General) claim? They have already produced them in court,". AG, however, maintained that documents were 'stolen' from the MoD. On December 14, SC had rejected the petitions by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie as also activist advocate Prashant Bhushan seeking a court-monitored probe into the Rafale acquisition process.

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The MoD, on Wednesday, said that the documents attached by the petitioners are 'sensitive to national security' and argued that the ministry has ordered an in-house inquiry to investigate who 'stole' the documents. In its affidavit, the Centre has relied upon the argument that the said documents belong to the class "in which the Government of India is entitled to claim privilege under Section 123, 124 of the Indian Evidence Act". Section 124 states that a public officer should not be compelled to disclose the communications made to him if he considers that the disclosure might harm the public interest.

The matter assumes importance on the backdrop that the Congress-led opposition has made Rafale an election issue and targetted the government over the offset contracts awarded to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence by Dassault- the manufacturer of Rafale. In its December 14 verdict, the apex court had dismissed the petitions and said that there was no reason to 'really doubt the decision-making process'. In 2016, India and France inked an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) to purchase 36 Rafale fighters from French Dassault. The announcement, made by PM Modi during his France visit, overruled the then existing process to purchase 126 Rafale jets from France — 18 in flyaway condition and 108 to be made in India with the transfer of technology.

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