SC on Wednesday reserved its order on the pleas seeking investigation into the Rafale deal. Last week, Centre submitted its report on how the deal to acquire 36 fighter jets from France was made in 2016. The petitioners are demanding the government to disclose the price of the fighter aircrafts, which the government has been constantly rejecting. According to the Govt, disclosing the price would violate the secrecy clause and this matter is of national security concern. Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is also a petitioner in the case, called this bogus argument. He added,“If I may point out, it was disclosed twice in Parliament formally.” He appealed to SC to direct the CBI to file an FIR in the case. However, SC has reserved its verdict on the on pleas seeking a court-monitored probe into the government-to-government deal.
The bench said, “The decision we need to take is whether to bring the fact on pricing in public domain or not.” However, it further clarified that any discussion on price will be considered if the bench thinks that it should come in the public domain.
Attorney General(AG) K K Venugopal told the SC that the government cannot disclose the price details of the deal because of the secrecy clause. He said that the complete details have not been shared with even the Parliament. He further added that the country’s adversaries may get advantages if the entire details on the pricing were divulged.
When further enquired about whether France gave a sovereign guarantee to the deal AG replied, ” There is no sovereign guarantee, but a letter of comfort by France. This is a sensitive issue involving the security of the country.”