The trio of Prashant Bhushan, disgruntled BJP leader Arun Shourie and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha are back with a review petition in the Supreme Court seeking an open hearing on the Rafale deal despite Supreme Court giving a clean chit earlier in the Rafale case, reported Bar and Bench.
According to Bar and Bench, the trio has sought an open hearing in the Supreme Court claiming that the earlier Supreme judgement was based on “errors apparent on the face of the record” and sought to recall the order.
The petitioners claim that the Union government has ‘clearly misled the court’ by submitting false information. The petition further states that the Court has relied upon “false averments” to come to the conclusion that they have followed due process in the procurement of the 36 Rafale jets. We had busted these claims with a detailed article where the government had filed a correction in court asserting that the court misunderstood the government’s submissions in case of the CAG report. However, one must also remember that the SC independently verified the price details of the case and their verdict was not based on the CAG report at all.
On December 13, The Supreme Court in its judgement had dismissed all petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into the Rafale deal. The Court said that it has not found any material to show that there has been any commercial favouritism.
CJI Gogoi had stated that the perception of an individual cannot form the basis of interference. The Supreme Court dismissing the case and had clarified that the examination has been primarily from the point of the exercise of jurisdiction by this court under Article 32. The SC did not find it as a case for the court to scrutinise the process of acquisition.
Prashant Bhushan, a perpetual Modi hater and a self-proclaimed PIL activist is often known for filing frivolous PILs having wide-ranging consequences. He is also known for professing his love towards anti-national sentiments and in the past, he has stood in the support of terrorists like Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Menon to save them from the death penalty.
Prashant Bhushan has been fighting the Narendra Modi government with various PILs intended to block various developmental policies. Recently, he had even filed a petition in the Supreme seeking a stay on the government’s decision to deport 7 illegal Rohingyas immigrants, who could have posed a huge national security risk for the country.
The Supreme Court has schooled Bhushan several times for his PILs, as recently CJI Ranjan Gogoi had warned Bhushan of misusing PILs and had stated that PILs are for poor after turning down one of his petitions. The conduct of Prashant Bhushan also led the Supreme Court to express grave concern over the rising misuse of PILs in its Judge Loya verdict.
Meanwhile, disgruntled BJP leader Arun Shourie and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha have been critical of the Narendra Modi after their aspirations of being relevant in the present regime turned sour. Interestingly, both Shourie and Sinha have been targetting Narendra Modi and has joined hands with left-wing and Congress supported forces against whom both Shourie and Sinha had fought ideological battles all their political life.
In a bid to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two BJP veterans have often expressed their desperation by seeking help from their ideological opponents. Former Union Minister Sinha had also created a massive controversy after he had attended a book release jointly authored by former Pakistan ISI chief Asad Durrani and former RAW chief A S Dulat. Asad Durrani was ISI chief in the 90s when Kashmir insurgency had just started.
