New Delhi: The Centre on Monday sought deferment of Tuesday’s hearing on the pleas seeking review of the Rafale deal verdict of December 14 last year saying it needs time to file a detailed reply on these petitions.
The Centre’s prayer was made before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi which did not say anything on the issue of adjournment of the scheduled hearing on Tuesday.
The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, allowed senior advocate R Balasubramanian, appearing for the Centre, to circulate a letter of adjournment among the parties which include petitioners who have filed the review petitions.
The Centre’s letter to the Supreme Court said that it needs time to file reply on merits on the review petitions.
The review petitions filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan is listed for hearing before a bench headed by the Chief Justice on Tuesday in the post-lunch session.
Two other review petitions — filed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh and advocate Vineet Dhanda — are also listed for hearing on Tuesday.
The Centre has said in the letter that it has raised certain preliminary objections on maintainability of certain documents relied upon in the review petitions and the court had decided the issue on April 10.
The Union government said that since the government has not filed any reply on merit of the review pleas, it would need some time to file a detailed reply to the petitions seeking review of December 14, 2018 verdict in Rafale fighter jet deal case.
In a setback to the Centre, the apex court on April 10 allowed the pleas which relied on leaked documents for seeking review of its Rafale judgement and dismissed the government’s preliminary objections claiming ‘privilege’ over them. (PTI)
