Rafale case: Centre seeks deferment of today's hearing in Supreme Court

The Opposition has alleged major irregularties and favouritism on the part of the government in the Rafale fighter jet deal

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Centre to circulate a letter among parties concerned for adjournment in tomorrow's scheduled hearing on pleas seeking review of its Rafale deal verdict of December 14 last year.

The Centre, in its letter, said it needs time to file reply on merits on the review petitions. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna allowed senior advocate R Balasubramanian, appearing for the Centre, to circulate the letter among the parties which include petitioners who have filed review pleas.

The bench, however, did not say anything on the issue of adjournment of scheduled hearing on Tuesday. 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.

The Centre has said in the letter that the government 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.

It 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 2018 verdict in the case. The apex court had on April 10 allowed the pleas which relied on leaked documents for seeking review of its Rafale judgement.

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