The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing in Rafale case to March 14.
The government told the Supreme Court that the documents cited by a newspaper report on the Rafale deal were stolen from the Defence Ministry and petitioners are violating the Official Secrets Act by relying on classified documents.
“These documents were stolen from the Defence Ministry either by public servants and an investigation is pending. We are dealing with defence purchases which involve the security of the state. It is a very sensitive case,” Attorney General KK Venugopal told the court, representing the central government.
The court was hearing the petitions jointly filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan. They alleged that the Centre suppressed crucial facts when the top court decided to dismiss the batch of PILs against the Rafale deal in December last year.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan told the top court that he has also made a supplementary affidavit based on reports by The Hindu.
CJI Ranjan Gogoi refused to accept any new documents from Bhushan, including ‘The Hindu’ reports and asked him to confine himself to the documents already on record.
“We don’t want any supplementary stuff. We have read what all you have given us,” Gogoi said.
Moreover, the top court refused to hear the review petition filed by AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. The Bench said the statement made by Singh on its verdict is derogatory.
