NEW DELHI: The Central government on Monday made public a redacted version of the decision-making process and induction of Indian offset partner that it submitted to SC in a sealed cover.
In the documents, the government claimed that the process laid down in the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 was followed in the procurement of the Rafale aircraft.
The Supreme Court had directed the central government to provide all the details related to the decision making on 36 Rafale fighter aircraft to the petitioners.
The document claims that approval of Defence Acquisition Council and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was also taken before signing the agreement.
The document was supplied to the petitioners as per the apex court’s October 31 order.The documents also claim that the negotiations on the deal went on for about a year.
There is, however, no mention of Rafale pricing in the affidavit.The next hearing for the case will be held on November 14.The Dassault Aviation-made Rafale deal was renegotiated during the tenure of French President Franois Hollande.
Former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and acivist lawyer Prashant Bhushan also filed a joint petition.Later, AAP MP Sanjay Singh had also filed the petition.
Centre has also told SC that Dassault Aviation is yet to formally convey the details of Indian offset partners. Hence the Centre is yet to be briefed about the exact role of Reliance Defence as per affidavit.
The Congress has alleged that the Modi government had acquired the aircraft at a price three times higher than the price negotiated by the erstwhile UPA government.
