Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Sunday urged the Supreme Court to recall its recent judgement refusing to order an inquiry into the Rafale deal, alleging that the Centre had provided false information to the judges, PTI reported. Sharma urged the top court to issue contempt of court and perjury notices to the government.
“[The] government misled the Supreme Court to get a manipulated judgement and when this glaring error came to notice, they told the Supreme Court couldn’t understand English language,” ANI quoted the former Union minister as saying at a press conference in Delhi. “Therefore we demand that the SC immediately recall this judgement, which is void.”
On Friday, the top court had rejected all petitions seeking an investigation into the government’s procurement of Rafale fighter jets from French company Dassault Aviation. The court said the material on record did not show any favouritism, and that it was satisfied that the process for procurement had been complied with.
The Congress, however, pointed out that a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India mentioned by the judgement does not exist. The verdict had said the report had been examined by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. But, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who heads the committee, said he had not been given any report by the CAG. The Congress then questioned the basis of the judgement and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government had submitted incorrect information to the court. The party demanded that the BJP apologise to the top court for misleading it.
On Saturday, the Centre asked the Supreme Court to make a correction in two sentences in the judgement. The Centre said the court’s usage of the words “has been” instead of “is” while referring to the Public Accounts Committee’s examination of the CAG report was misleading. The usage of the word “is”, the Centre claimed, would have denoted that the procedure “will be followed as and when the CAG report is ready”.
Sharma alleged that the government was guilty of committing breach of privilege of both Houses of Parliament by claiming that the CAG report on Rafale pricing had been presented to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. “They should seek penance and take a dip in the holy Ganges instead,” he said in a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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