राफेल पर शीर्ष न्यायालय का कहना है कि गलत काम नहीं है, सरकार के लिए भारी जीत|

There is no reason for the court to sit in judgement on the correctness of the Rafale jet deal, the Supreme Court said today, in a massive relief to the government, which had been accused by the Congress of corruption in the Rs. 59,000-crore deal for 36 fighter jets. Petitions alleging that the government had gone for an overpriced deal to help Anil Ambani’s company bag an offset contract with jet-maker Dassault also didn’t wash with the court, which said: “There is no evidence of commercial favouritism to any private entity.” Here are the top 10 updates on the Rafale deal case in the Supreme Court: “We can’t sit in judgement over the wisdom of purchase of aircraft,” said a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, adding, “Our country cannot be allowed to be underprepared.” It is “not the job of this court to go into the differential pricing details, which must be kept confidential,” said the judges, on petitions accusing the government of going for an overpriced deal. Petitions demanding a court-monitored investigation into the deal were filed as the Congress and other opposition parties went hammer-and-tongs at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, accusing it of crony capitalism. The Congress has alleged that the Centre scrapped a deal for 126 Rafale jets negotiated by the previous UPA government and entered an expensive new contract just to help Anil Ambani’s defence company bag an offset partnership with the jet manufacturer Dassault. The court said, “We don’t find any substantial element to show that there is any commercial favouritism to any private entity.” Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had alleged that Dassault chose Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as an offset partner despite its inexperience in the field, just to bag the Indian order. He also accused Dassault chief Eric Trappier of lying about it. Both the government and the French aeronautics major have denied the allegation. The offset clause means that in exchange for the contract, Dassault has to invest half the value of the deal — about Rs. 30,000 crore — in Indian firms. Reliance Defence was chosen as one of those “offset” partners and is to manufacture plane parts – though not for the 36 jets ordered by India.The Congress has demanded that the pricing details of the planes be made public – a demand the government rejected citing a secrecy clause in the deal. During the last hearing on November 14, the government had defended the secrecy clause, claiming if revealed, it could compromise national security and even the parliament has not been informed about it. The pricing details, however, were submitted to the court in a sealed cover. The government also filed a 14-page document titled “Details of the steps in the decision-making process leading to the award of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft order” as the petitioners had demanded an investigation into the procedure followed as well. At the court’s request, two senior Air Force officers also appeared in court to answer the judges’ question about the jets. They told the court that no new aircraft has been inducted into the Air Force since 1985. The petitions were filed initially by two lawyers, Manohar Lal Sharma and Vineet Dhanda. Later, Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Sanjay Singh filed one. Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan also filed a joint petition in the top court.