Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan sough an oral hearing of the petition in an open court.
Former ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, along with advocate Prashant Bhushan, have requested the Supreme Court review its verdict in Rafale case that gave the government a clean chit.
The Supreme Court, on December 14, had ruled that there was no reason to doubt the decision-making process behind the Rafale jet deal, clearing the government, which has been repeatedly accused by the Congress of corruption in the Rs. 59,000-crore contract. The court rejected a probe and dismissed petitions that had alleged that the government had gone for an overpriced deal to help industrialist Anil Ambani's company bag an offset contract with jet-maker Dassault. "There is no evidence of commercial favouritism to any private entity," the court had said.
On December 15, the centre approached the top court for a "factual correction" in a paragraph in its judgement which has a reference to the Comptroller and Auditor General report and parliament's Public Accounts Committee or PAC.
In their petition, Mr Sinha, Mr Shourie and Mr Bhushan alleged that the judgment "relied upon patently incorrect claims made by the government in an unsigned note given in a sealed cover" to the Supreme Court. They have also requested for an oral hearing of the petition in an open court.
The petition was filed a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview to news agency ANI, broke his silence on the Congress' claims of crony capitalism and alleged favouring of Anil Ambani in the Rafale deal. PM Modi said that they were not of a "personal" nature. "This is not a personal allegation against me but an allegation against my government. If there's any allegation against me personally, let them dig who gave what, when and where and to whom," he said.
The Congress is insisting on a joint parliamentary committee probe although the Supreme Court has said that it found "nothing wrong" with the Rafale deal.
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