Rafale deal | Supreme Court allows withdrawal of plea to order probe, cancel purchase

Supreme Court says ‘no case is made out to exercise jurisdiction’

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed advocate M.L. Sharma to withdraw his plea to summon documents from French investigation agency, Agence Francaise Anticorruption (AFA), allegedly showing that aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation paid €1 million to an Indian company in connection with the 2016 Indo-French Rafale deal.

"Having gone through the facts and circumstances, no case is made out to exercise jurisdiction," a Bench of Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and S. Ravindra Bhat concluded in its order.

Also read | Congress, BJP trade charges after new report on Rafale

The petition had made Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the first respondent, followed by Sushen Mohan Gupta, Defsys Solutions Private Limited, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited, the Centre, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

During the short hearing Mr. Sharma said his petition was filed in 2021. Time has passed and he would focus solely on urging the court to issue a Letter Rogatory to summon the document allegedly showing the payment of the money.

"The document should be called forth. The matter is serious," Mr. Sharma submitted.

The petition had originally urged the top court to order the registration of an F.I.R. under various offences, including cheating, criminal breach of trust, sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and the Official Secrets Act.