Rafale case: Lawyer seeks hearing on PIL in SC after assembly elections in 5 states

NEW DELHI: A lawyer, the first to drag the NDA government to the Supreme Court over the Rafale fighter jet deal, has filed an interim plea seeking hearing on his PIL after assembly polls in five states in November to counter the allegation that his was a politicallymotivated petition.

The poll panel has recently announced the dates for assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana. They would conclude by November end.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is likely to hear tomorrow the two PILS, filed by lawyers Manohar Lal Sharma and Vineet Dhanda, on India’s deal with France to buy the fighter jets.

The bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, on October 10 had directed the Centre to provide in a sealed cover the “details of the steps” taken in the decision making process, sans pricing and technical information, which led to the deal.

Sharma, who filed an interim plea in his pending PIL, has referred to certain media reports to allege that the French Dassault company “accepted to work with Reliance as an ‘imperative and obligatory’ condition for securing the fighter contract”. The lawyer mentioned Tuesday the plea before the bench which asked him to provide its copy tomorrow.

Besides seeking nod to initiate the detailed arguments, the lawyer has also sought a direction to Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited and its head to file “all relevant documents of the Rafale deal belonging to them”.

The lawyer, in his PIL, has sought to quash the inter-government agreement between India and France on account of the violation of “defence procurement procedure” and subsequent registration of an FIR in the case.