New Delhi:Addressing a press conference over the Supreme Court order on Rafale deal, former Union Minister Arun Shourie and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on Friday called upon the CBI to file an FIR into the matter.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected pleas, including one by Bhushan, Shourie and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, for a review of its judgement that gave a clean chit to the Modi government on the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. It also said there is no ground to order an FIR by the CBI or a roving inquiry into allegations of irregularities in the controversial deal.
Bhushan said there is no impediment on part of CBI 'CBI must file FIR'
Bhushan said it is binding on the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe their complaint despite the ruling by the three-judge apex court bench.
"We are not asking the Supreme Court to conduct an investigation. We are asking for a probe according to the order of the land. The court can't deliver a judgment on the basis of submissions made in a sealed cover and not shared with petitioners," Bhushan said.
Adding that the apex court overlooked the above, Bhushan said that the top court 'completely misdirected' itself from their prayers.
"It is quite clear that CBI is expected to act completely independent. Government can't speak on behalf of CBI. There is no impediment on part of CBI. It has been sitting over our complaint for the past one year. We now call upon the government to let CBI probe if they have done nothing wrong," Bhushan added.
'Govt submitted false info to the Court in sealed cover'
Bhushan further said that the government has submitted false information in a sealed cover which led the Supreme Court to dismiss the petitions.
"When the judgment came, it contained some astounding facts that the Supreme Court had taken from the sealed cover given by the government. One of them was that a CAG report was submitted before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and had been placed before Parliament and in the public which was wrong," Bhushan told reporters.
He further said that the judge mentioned that Dassault Aviation, the maker of Rafale fighter jets, was "negotiating with businessman Anil Ambani's company since 2012 and therefore it could not be the Prime Minister's decision to bring in Anil Ambani into the deal. This fact was also turned out to be false."
Shourie said the judgment gave them an opportunity to put forward further facts 'SC hiding behind burkha of self-restraint'
Expressing his displeasure over the verdict, Shourie accused the apex court of not dealing with the facts and hiding itself in a self-manufactured Burkha.
"The fact that the court gave such a ridiculous judgment gave us the opportunity to put further facts to the court through a review petition. The SC has not dealt with any of those facts and has hidden behind a 'burkha' (veil) of self-restraint," he said.
"If the court calls me for contempt of court I have my lawyer ready," he added, pointing towards Prashant Bhushan.
"We never questioned the technical capabilities of the aircraft. But the court says that we should not go into these details because we don't have the competence to look at the technical points and neither do the appellants," Shourie further added.
Delivering its much-awaited ruling on the matter, the Supreme Court earlier on Thursday refused to review its earlier decision of giving a clean chit to the government while rejecting pleas for registration of an FIR by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the deal.
In its order on December 14, 2018, the apex court had said that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement relating to the Rafale jets.
Read: BJP says SC order on Rafale 'victory of truth', seeks Rahul's apology
