[Rafale Deal] Supreme Court refuses to entertain ML Sharma plea to procure documents from French authorities

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition seeking issuance of Letters Rogatory (LR) so as to obtain the investigation documents from a French agency, which has been probing the alleged bribery of Indian middleman by France-based Dassault Aviation for procuring the Rafale deal..A division bench of Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat was hearing a petition filed by advocate ML Sharma seeking probe into the Rafale deal in view of the news reports by a French portal alleging that Dassault paid some amount to Indian middleman to secure the contract.When the matter was called out for hearing, Sharma apprised the bench of the facts of the case and said, "If the French probe agency says 1 billion euro was paid as bribe then we need to see those papers and thus LRs are needed. Please issue this. I don't have any personal agenda in this."LRs are letters issued to foreign courts or governments seeking their assistance in a given case. .However, the bench seemed unimpressed by his contentions and said it cannot entertain his plea under Article 32 of the Constitution of India."Hence, dismissed," the CJI ordered, but Sharma quickly urged the bench to let him withdraw the plea, with a liberty to move the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The bench allowed him to withdraw the petition and clarified that he was free to move the Central agency..One of the main prayers of Sharma was to quash the Rafale deal, under which the Central government procured 36 fighter jets from French aviation firm Dassault. He claimed that the deal was an outcome of corruption and is in gross violation of Articles 13, 21, and 253 of the Constitution of India.He had also sought a probe by the CBI under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the Prime Minister and other respondents. The Supreme Court had by way if a judgment dated December 14, 2018 dismissed a batch of petitions calling for an investigation into the controversial Rafale Deal.A total of four petitions had been filed calling into question the Indian government’s deal with French firm Dassault Aviation to buy 36 fighter jets for a total of Rs. 58,000 crore. There were six petitioners in all – ML Sharma, Vineet Dhanda, Sanjay Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan.Subsequently, in 2019 the review petitions against the same were also dismissed.Sharma then approached the Court by way of the present plea after French authorities started a probe.

[Rafale Deal] Supreme Court refuses to entertain ML Sharma plea to procure documents from French authorities

Debayan Roy

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