The Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear a plea seeking details of an alleged deal signed in 2008 between the then ruling Congress-led government at the Centre and the Communist Party of China, reported PTI. The petition was filed against the Indian National Congress and its leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Chief Justice of India SA Bobde told the petitioner to withdraw the plea and take it to the High Court. The bench also noted that the allegations in the petition were “absurd”.
“You are saying a political party has entered into an agreement with China?” Bobde said, according to Live Law. “Within our limited experience, we have unheard of it that a political party is making an agreement with another country.”
The top court further gave the option to the petitioner to file a new plea and said that if it found “any false statement” in the fresh appeal, the petitioner may be prosecuted.
The plea claimed that information at the highest levels were exchanged between China and the Congress party. The plea also sought an inquiry into the case by the National Investigation Agency under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 or by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The petitioners, lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha and Goa Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Savio Rodrigues, stated in their plea: “Petitioners firmly believe that the nation’s security cannot and shouldn’t be compromised by anyone.”
The plea highlighted that the alleged agreement was the Memorandum of Understanding signed during the United Progressive Alliance’s term in August 2008.
The plea was submitted as tensions between India and China reached its peak after a clash between soldiers of the two countries along the Line of Actual Control. At least 20 Indian soldiers and an unidentified number of their Chinese counterparts had died in an altercation in Galwan Valley in Ladakh on June 15.
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