The Supreme Court on Friday will give its verdict on petitions seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the Centre’s procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from French company Dassault Aviation. The verdict is expected at around 10.30 am.

The petitions were filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and former Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie. Besides them, lawyer ML Sharma, another advocate Vineet Dhanda and Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh have filed petitions against the deal. On November 14, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the petitions.

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The Congress, supported by other opposition parties, has accused the government of overpaying for the fighter aircraft and claimed that the deal has benefitted businessman Anil Ambani. Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s allegations were bolstered by former French President Francois Hollande’s claim in September that the Indian government had proposed the name of Ambani’s Reliance Defence for the offset obligations in the deal.

During the hearing, Prashant Bhushan had told the court that apart from the procedure, offset and pricing aspects of the deal, claims of “circumventing of tender by going for an inter-governmental agreement” also need to be considered. The object of the inter-governmental agreement was “only to obviate the need for a tender”, he had alleged.

The Centre has opposed public disclosure of the pricing details, while the court had in November said the pricing of the controversial jet deal did not need to be discussed then.

The government had said that the procurement process laid down in the Defence Procurement Procedure, 2013, had been followed. On October 31, the top court had asked the Centre to submit more details – including pricing and strategic details – related to the Rafale aircraft deal in a sealed cover in 10 days.