Caught in the whirlpool of Rafale corruption scam in the parliament and in the public domain, BJP government has so far not mentioned the ‘correction application’ for changing an all-important paragraph on CAG report in the Rafale judgement delivered by the Supreme Court last month.
Calling the mistakes as typographical error, the government had said the Supreme Court mistook the defence ministry’s “is” as “has been” while stating the CAG report has been examined by a Parliament panel. The government apparently wanted to say the report “is” examined by the panel in the normal course but the note, which was submitted in a sealed envelope only to the bench, did not say so explicitly. It even filed a correction application, with a prayer that “that the matter may be dealt with urgently”.
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But two days after the Supreme Court reopened after the winter vacation, the government has not mentioned the correction application before the bench headed by the CJI. If it needed to “be dealt with urgently,” the case should have been mentioned on 2 January itself.
Sources in the office of the Attorney General told NewsCentral24X7 that they have decided not to mention the case, despite pleading for urgency. The criticism suffered by the Supreme Court for the judgement could lead to an embarrassment for the government, if a mentioning is done, sources explained.
Moreover, the Supreme Court has not initiated any steps to issue a corrigendum to the judgement, nailing the government’s lie that it is just a typographical error which has no effect on the judgement in the Rafale case. The paragraph on CAG report also forms the core of the review petition filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court (Read full petition here).
“CJI unlikely to correct the judgment as asked by Centre as changing those words will also result in changing subsequent paragraphs. Though the judgment is not based on this CAG audit reference but the judgment is written in a structure basing one after another. If CAG goes, subsequent paras should also be changed and it’s certainly does not come under TYPO error of SC rules,” a senior advocate involved with the case told NewsCentral24X7 on condition of anonymity.
Rafale judgement is about seeking a court-monitored enquiry into allegations of corruption, cronyism and violation of procedure in the deal for buying 36 fighter jets from France. BJP government has not agreed to setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the matter, nor has CAG submitted its report on the deal so far.