The government has been accused of going for an overpriced deal to help Anil Ambani's defence firm.
The Supreme Court will decide today whether it would re-open the case involving the acquisition of the 36 Rafale fighter jets by the Centre, which had been challenged earlier. This time, a review of the December verdict has been sought. The court had said there was "no occasion to doubt the decision making process" of the government to acquire the Rafale fighter jets amid Congress allegations of corruption in the 2016 jet deal.
But former union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, advocate Prashant Bhushan and Aam Aadmi party MP Sanjay Singh have filed a petition contending that the government had "misled" the Supreme Court. They want the court to re-consider its judgment, which relies on a "non-existent" CAG report to uphold the Rafale deal.
A fourth petition has been filed by the Centre after the December verdict, which calls for a correction in the verdict, where it says the Comptroller and Auditor General report on the Rafale deal was placed before parliament.
The report was placed before the parliament after the verdict, in the session that ended on February 13.
Chief Justice and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph will decide in chambers whether the petitioners deserve to be heard in the open court.
Mr Sinha, Mr Shourie and Prashant Bhushan have sought initiation of perjury proceedings against central government officials who allegedly gave "false or misleading" information to the court.
The December verdict came following petitions that alleged that the government had gone for an overpriced deal to help Anil Ambani's rookie defence firm bag an offset contract with jet-maker Dassault.
But the court dismissed the need for a probe, saying, "There is no evidence of commercial favouritism to any private entity."
"Having heard the matter in detail, we find no reason for any intervention by this court on the sensitive issue... Perception of individuals cannot be the basis of a fishing and roving inquiry by this court, especially in such matters," said a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Gogoi.
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