Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday submitted an unconditional apology in the Supreme Court for attributing his political slogan “Chowkidar Chor Hai” to the top court.

The Congress leader in his three-page apology also requested the top court to drop proceedings in the case against him. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter on Friday.

The contempt case against Rahul Gandhi was filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Meenakshi Lekhi for allegedly incorrectly attributing the slogan to the preliminary verdict of the top court in the Rafale case. Lekhi had asked the court to initiate criminal contempt action against Gandhi for twisting the top court’s April 10 judgment to claim that the court declared Prime Minister Narendra Modi guilty of corrupt practices in purchase of the Rafale aircraft.

Gandhi had apologised for misquoting the Supreme Court at the previous hearing. The court, however, had asked him to give a written apology and was not convinced by Gandhi’s earlier affidavit.

The top court had on Monday said it would hear Gandhi’s contemp case with a review petition on its verdict on the Rafale jet deal on May 10.

On December 14, the Supreme Court dismissed all petitions seeking a court-monitored probe of the Rs 59,000 crore contract for Rafale fighter planes made by Dassault Aviation of France, saying that there was no reason to doubt the decision-making process. The petitioners had alleged fiscal malfeasance and commercial favouritism in the deal.

The review petitions have been filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan in the Rafale case claiming the December 18 verdict in the case contained errors and relied on the government’s incorrect claims in an unsigned note given in a sealed cover.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh and lawyer Vineet Dhanda, too, have filed two more review petitions.

The Centre has filed an affidavit last Saturday in the case, saying any revieRahul Gandhi apologises for attributing ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ to SC

w in the case would tantamount to questioning the government’s sovereign decision-related to national security and defence.

The government has said the claims made in the review petitions are “scandalous, false, baseless and bereft of any particular material”. The affidavit said the ruling had no apparent “error warranting its review”.

First Published: May 08, 2019 10:55 IST