TIMELINE OF THE RAFALE SAGA
Following is the chronology of events in the Rafale fighter jets deal in which the Supreme Court rejected review petitions against its verdict giving clean chit to the Narendra Modi government:
Dec 30, 2002: Defence Procurement Procedures adopted Aug 28, 2007: Defence ministry issues Request for Proposal for procurement of 126 MMRCA fighters Sep 4, 2008: Anil Ambaniled Reliance Group incorporates Reliance Aerospace Technologies Ltd (RATL) May 2011: Air Force shortlists Rafale and Eurofighter jets Jan 30, 2012: Dassault Aviation’s Rafale aircraft comes up with lowest bid Mar 13, 2014: Work Share agreement signed between HAL and Dassault Aviation under which they were responsible for 70 per cent and 30 per cent of the work, respectively, for 108 aircraft Aug 8, 2014: Then defence minister Arun Jaitley tells Parliament that 18 direct ‘fly-away’ aircraft expected to be delivered in 3-4 years from signing of the contract; remaining 108 aircraft to be delivered in the next seven years Apr 8, 2015: Then foreign secretary saysdetailed discussions underway between Dassault, MoD, HAL
Jan 26, 2016: India, France sign MoU for 36 Rafale aircraft Nov 18: Government states in Parliament that the cost of each Rafale aircraft to be approximately Rs 670 crore and that all aircraft will be delivered by April 2022
Mar 13, 2018: PIL in SC seeks independent probe into Centre's decision to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from France and disclosure of the cost involved in the deal before Parliament
Oct 24: Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan moves SC, seeking registration of FIR
Oct 31: SC asks Centre to place it in sealed cover the pricing details of 36 Rafale fighter jets
Nov 14: SC reserves judgement on pleas seeking court-monitored probe in Rafale deal
Dec 14: SC dismisses all the petitions seeking direction to the CBI to register an FIR for alleged irregularities in the jet deal
Jan 2, 2019: Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan move SC seeking review of its December 14 judgement
Mar 13: Govt says documents filed by review petitioners are sensitive to national security
Apr 10: SC dismisses Centre’s objection claiming privilege over documents to seek review
Apr 12: BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi moves SC against Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ remarks on Rafale to the apex court
Apr 23: SC issues contempt notice to Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on Rafale verdict May 8: Gandhi tenders apology in SC
Nov 14: SC dismisses review pleas against its verdict in the Rafale deal, rejects contention that there was need for registration of an FIR, closes contempt plea against Rahul Gandhi.