The Supreme Court will pronounce its judgment tomorrow in the Rafale review petition with respect to the preliminary issue and claim of privilege raised by the Central government.
The judgment will be pronounced by a Bench of Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph.
There are two separate judgments, one by CJI Ranjan Gogoi and the other by Justice KM Joseph.
The review has been filed against the Court’s December 2018 judgment, by which it dismissed petitions calling for an investigation into the Rafale deal.
During the hearing of the review petition, Attorney General KK Venugopal claimed that some of the documents relied on by the petitioners in their review petitions were photocopied from the Defence Ministry.
He had, therefore, sought dismissal of the review petition in limine on that ground alone.
He had also submitted that the document in question can be withheld from disclosure under the RTI Act. Venugopal had submitted that disclosure of the contents of the Defence Ministry note amounted to an offence under the Official Secrets Act. It was his contention that such stolen documents cannot be relied upon by the court unless the source from which the same was procured is disclosed.
Justice KM Joseph had, however, quizzed Venugopal on the above aspects.
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