Hearing of the contempt case against Rahul Gandhi has been segregated from the Rafale review petition and both the cases are adjourned by Supreme Court till May 10.
“We are a little perplexed that the two cases (Rahul’s contempt and Rafale) have been segregated,” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi remarked and said the court would endeavour to complete hearing the review petitions on May 10.
As the proceedings began
today, the bench headed by Chief Justice of India asked if the contempt
petition against Congress President Rahul Gandhi was also listed today. When
the reply came in the negative, the CJI wondered “How is it that this
review has come today and the other matter on 10th, when there is an order
saying that both the matters are to be heard together?”
The contempt case against Rahul Gandhi had been initiated for attributing the
“chowkidar chor hain” remarks to the preliminary verdict of SC in
Rafale case. Gandhi had apologised for misquoting the apex court at the
previous hearing, but the court had asked him to furnish a written
apology.
The three-judge bench, also comprising Justice KM Joseph and SK Kaul, insisted that the hearing of both cases will be held together and adjourned the matter. May 10 is the last day before the Supreme Court breaks for summer recess.
The petitions in the Rafale case have been filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist-advocate Prashant Bhushan. They are seeking a review of the December 14 verdict by which their plea seeking probe into alleged irregularities in the multi-crore Rafale fighter jet deal was dismissed.
Referring to the April 10 order of the apex court, by which the Centre’s preliminary objection to placing reliance on leaked documents was rejected by the top court, the Centre’s reply said the order “would imply that any document marked secret obtained by whatever means and placed in public domain can be used without attracting any penal action”.