Govt moves SC for correction in Rafale judgment

The Union government on Saturday approached the Supreme Court seeking “correction of the errors” in the judgment delivered a day before while dismissing a batch of PILs seeking probe into the deal to buy Rafale fighter jets from France in 2016.

“Unfortunately, an element of misinterpretation of the statement made in the note/bullet points handed over on behalf of the Union of India in the sealed cover appears to have crept in. This has also resulted in a controversy being raised in the public domain,” the Defence Ministry stated in its application.

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It sought a direction urgently for corrections in paragraph 25 of its judgment “so that any doubts and or any misunderstanding is not allowed to creep in.”

The paragraph 25 of the judgment is read as: “The pricing details have, however, been shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General, and the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee. Only a redacted portion of the report was placed before the Parliament, and is in public domain.”

This particular paragraph was cited by the Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday to hit out at the government accusing it of misleading the apex court, saying the CAG report was never shared with the PAC chairman Mallikarjun Kharge.

On Saturday, in an application, the government said, “The statement that only a redacted version of the report “is” placed before Parliament, is referred to in the judgment as “only a redacted portion of the report was placed before the Parliament, and is in public domain”.

Also read: SC didn't go into pricing; only JPC can probe deal: INC

In the judgment, the reference to the word “is” has been replaced with the words “has been”, and the sentence in the judgment (with regard to the PAC) reads “the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee”, it pointed out.

“The observations in the judgment have resulted in controversy in public domain and would warrant correction in the interest of justice,” it said.

The government wanted to put forth the procedure which is followed in normal course when the CAG report is ready, it said.

The application stated that the words “The report of the CAG is examined by the PAC. Only a redacted version of the report is placed before the Parliament and in public domain” be substituted in place of “and the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee. Only a redacted portion of the report was placed before the Parliament and is in public domain.”