Rafale row: Centre has embarrassed SC\, says Kapil Sibal

Rafale row: Centre has embarrassed SC, says Kapil Sibal

ANI  |  New Delhi [India] 

After the Centre filed an application before the seeking correction in its judgement on fighter jet deal, the party has said that the government has brought an embarrassment to the apex court.

A day after the delivered verdict in the deal case, the on Saturday filed an application before it, seeking a correction in the order to make it clear that the pricing aspect, examined by the (CAG), has not been looked into by Parliament's (PAC) as yet.

Speaking to ANI, senior said, "It's very unfortunate because what's now being stated by the government is really blaming the court for misinterpreting the points they had placed before the court in a sealed cover."

"The fact of the matter is they should have said 'while pricing details have been shared with the CAG, the matter is not yet brought to PAC'. The relied upon what they said, and gave an order. Now they are embarrassed and have embarrassed the court as well. This is not the only part of judgement that's factually incorrect," he added.

The apex court on December 14 dismissed all the petitions seeking probe into the deal stating that it was "satisfied" with the Central government's decision-making process.

However, the Centre sought urgent correction in the wording of a particular paragraph in the order "in the interests of justice and in the facts and circumstances of the case", while noting that "the observations in the judgement have resulted in a controversy."

In its application, accessed by the ANI, the union government pointed out that error in two sentences appears to have occurred, perhaps, on account of a misinterpretation of a couple of sentences in a note handed over to the apex court in a sealed cover.

The government clarified that it had only submitted a "description of procedure" by the CAG, which the Supreme Court appears to have mistaken "is" for "has been".

The government's application refers to Para 25 of the judgement which reads: "The pricing details have, however, been shared with [hereinafter referred to as "CAG"], and the report of the CAG has been examined by the [hereinafter referred to as "PAC"]. Only a redacted portion of the report was placed before the Parliament and is in public domain."

The Rafale jet deal controversy has been on the boil over the last few months. The and other opposition parties have been alleging irregularities in the high-profile deal. The fighter jet is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft, which security analysts believe can be a 'game-changer' for India's defence system.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sun, December 16 2018. 04:40 IST