Rafale deal: Centre asks SC to defer today’s hearing

The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it needed more time to file a reply to the petitions seeking a review of the court’s December 14 Rafale deal verdict, and requested it to defer the hearing on the review pleas scheduled for Tuesday.

The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it needed more time to file a reply to the petitions seeking a review of the court’s December 14 Rafale deal verdict, and requested it to defer the hearing on the review pleas scheduled for Tuesday.

The bench had on December 14 dismissed petitions which sought a court-monitored probe into the deal for purchase of 36 Rafale jets from France.

On Monday, senior advocate R Balasubramanian mentioned the Centre’s prayer before a bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, which allowed him to circulate a letter stating the request. However, the bench did not state whether the hearing would be postponed.

A bench comprising the CJI and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph is scheduled to take up a clutch of review petitions -including one by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan – at 2 pm on Tuesday.

On April 10, the court had rejected the Centre’s preliminary objections to the admissibility of certain documents, which were published by The Hindu newspaper and later carried by news agency ANI regarding the deal.

Newsletter

Prime Minister Modi inaugurates Atal Tunnel - longest tunnel above 10000 ft

Ladakh: The Prime Minister today inaugurated the Atal Tunnel and took the inaugural drive through in the 9km long tunnel...

Orissa High Court Order regarding migrant workers entry into Orissa put on hold by the Supreme Court

The Orissa High Court order to permit the entry of migrant workers only if they tested Negative for COVID-19 was put on...

Coronavirus Lockdown - First Flights To Bring Back Indians Stranded Abroad Land In Kerala

On Monday, the central government announced plans to begin a massive repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad, dubbe...

Reacting to Trump's retaliation threat India allows Hydroxychloroquine export

In a move after Trump's threat to retaliate if India fails to send medicines, India has lifted ban of export of ess...

All Domestic Passenger Flights Suspended from Midnight Tomorrow

The operations of all domestic schedule commercial airlines will stop operations from 23.59pm on March 24, a government...

Iran says it ‘unintentionally’ shot down Ukrainian plane, blames ‘human error’

Iran had denied for several days that a missile downed the aircraft. But then the US and Canada, citing intelligence, sa...