NEW DELHI: The Centre on Saturday filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking correction in a paragraph in its judgement on Rafale fighter jet deal in which a reference has been made about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
A law officer said that the application has been filed to convey to the court that there has been some misinterpretation on the issue of the documents placed in a sealed cover relating to the CAG and PAC.
In the judgement on Friday, the apex court had noted that the pricing details have been shared with CAG, and the report of the CAG has been examined by the PAC. The issue of CAG and PAC was mentioned in para 25 of the judgement of the top court which had held that there were no irregularities in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France.
The judgement had said that the material placed before it shows that the Centre did not disclose in Parliament the pricing details of the Rafale fighter jet, but revealed it to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
After the SC verdict on Friday, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who chairs the PAC, had said no such report had come to him.
‘SC didn’t go into pricing’
The Congress said Saturday the Supreme Court, which gave the government relief in the Rafale jet case, has not gone into the pricing and technical aspects of the aircraft and it is only a joint parliamentary committee that can probe whether there was any irregularity in the deal.
At a press conference, Congress leader Kapil Sibal pointed to a part of Friday’s judgment in which the Supreme Court said the material placed before it shows the Centre did not disclose in Parliament the pricing details of the fighter jet but revealed it to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The apex court also said the CAG report was even examined by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.
Reacting to this, Sibal said Mallikarjun Kharge, the chairman of PAC, has said he never received any such report on Rafale jet. “Who is responsible for this? Who said this? It was the government who said this. How did the attorney general pass the affidavit?” he said. He also rebuked the government for not reading its own affidavits. “This is a very serious matter and there should be an action in this case because the message among people is that CAG has cleared and Parliament has seen the deal, which is wrong,” he said. (PTI)
