Supreme Court reserves judgment on Rafale jets deal

SECRECY Centre tells top court it can’t reveal price details NEWDELHI:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on pleas seeking a court monitored probe in procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph concluded the arguments advanced by various parties which have also sought registration of FIR in connection with the alleged irregularities in the deal.

The Centre defended the secrecy clause related to the pricing of the 36 Rafale fighter jets and said it cannot divulge details of the deal as adversaries may get advantage if the pricing is disclosed.

These matters are for the experts to deal with and “we have been saying that even Parliament has not been told about the complete cost of jets,” the government’s top law officer, attorney general KK Venugopal, told the Supreme Court.

Defending the secrecy clause, Venugopal said, “Our adversaries may get advantages if the entire detail on the pricing is disclosed.”

During the hearing, Venugopal said he would not be able to assist the court further on the pricing issue. “I decided not to peruse it myself as in case of any —KK VENUGOPAL, attorney general —CJI RANJAN GOGOI —KK VENUGOPAL SANJAY SINGH, petitioner

leak, my office would be held responsible,” he said.

The bench said any discussion on pricing of the Rafale fighter jets can only take place if the facts on the deal are allowed to come in the public domain. “The decision we need to take is whether to bring the fact on pricing in public domain or not,” the

bench said.

Venugopal said the Indian Air Force had been writing to the government that “it will be difficult for them to defend our country due to shortage of aircraft” and the country had fallen behind.

“We are dealing with the