Rafale case: SC observation no jolt to Centre, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

PATNA: Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed the opposition for terming the Supreme Court's observation Wednesday in the Rafale case as a jolt to the Modi government, claiming that the verdict on the merit of the case is yet to be delivered.

The Supreme Court Wednesday allowed leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgment and dismissed the government's preliminary objections claiming "privilege" over them.

The opposition parties' stand that the Supreme Court's decision is a jolt to the government is "prayojit (sponsored)", Prasad told reporters at Bakhtiyarpur, about 50 km from the Bihar capital.

"The court has merely said that it would examine even those documents which the government holds are privileged, or have been appended to the petition in an unauthorised manner," he said.

Prasad said, "The Supreme Court is yet to come out with a verdict on the merit of the case on the review petitions."

"The government is on a strong footing as the apex court has already said that no commercial interests were involved in the deal which was necessary for national security", he said.

The Centre had submitted that privileged documents were procured by petitioners in an illegal way and used to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018, judgment of the apex court dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.

"The Rafale deal was necessary to strengthen the Indian Air Force. The IAF had a dearth of state-of=the art aircraft. A sponsored campaign is being carried out against the government on the issue," he alleged.

"We respect the Supreme Court's order," the union law minister who is the BJP candidate for the Patna Sahib seat, added.

He said as far as the opposition parties and their "sponsored campaign" is concerned, they will be given a befitting reply by the people of this country.