Khushi Bajpai
Published on: August 29, 2022 at 19:32 IST
The Supreme Court on Monday refused a PIL seeking an inquiry into the Rafale Deal in the light of certain reports in a French news portal alleging payment of bribe by Dassault Aviation to an Indian middleman.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat considered the PIL filed by Advocate ML Sharma, which made Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the first respondent in personal capacity.
The bench initially dismissed the petition, saying that no case for inference by the Supreme Court had been made out by the petitioner.
After the order was dictated, Sharma made a further request, seeking permission to withdraw the petition. Accepting the subsequent request, the bench altered the order and dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
A bench comprising of the then CJI Rajan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph had observed that the review petition filed by Advocate Prashant Bhushan, former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie lacked merit.
The review pleas had been filed on the ground that certain documents had been leaked by the media which showcased that the government had suppressed information from the court.
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