Rafale verdict: Defective pleas led to delay in hearing of review petitions, says SC

The Supreme Court on Friday sought to clear the air over alleged delay in the hearing of petitions seeking the review of its judgment on controversial Rafale deal as it pointed to the defective petitions filed seeking the review.

"Defective petitions are filed and then we are blamed," Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi sitting with Justice Sanjiv Khanna said pointing out that "the other side is not so innocent".

CJI Gogoi said to a lawyer this in the course of urgent mentioning in the morning that "defective" petitions are filed and then the court is blamed as in the case of Rafale.

However, it was not clear which defective review petition the CJI was pointing to, as former ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan have sought the recall of the apex court's December 14, 2018 judgment.

Aam Admi Party Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh, too, has also filed a plea seeking the review of judgment.

All these petitions seeking the recall and review of the December 14 are likely to be taken up together.

The government, too, has moved the top court seeking correction in the December 14 judgment pointing out that what it had told the court was about the procedure of parliamentary oversight involving the CAG report, which is placed before the Public Account Committee for examination.

However, Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan have contended that government had, in its report submitted in a sealed cover, furnished wrong facts to the court.

--IANS

pk/nir