The documents cited by ‘The Hindu’ in a report on the Rafale deal were stolen from the Defence Ministry and can’t be shown in court as it affects national security, the Attorney General has told the Supreme Court during a hearing of review pleas against the clean chit to the Narendra Modi government. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, one of the petitioners, meanwhile, alleged that the government lied in court on the Rafale deal and should be pulled up for perjury.
Attorney General KK Venugopal said papers regarding the pricing of the Rafales — a topic of furious political debate — were stolen from ministry files and given to The Hindu newspaper for publishing.
He also said a review petition and an affidavit filed by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan contained extracts from the stolen documents, and these should be dismissed.
When Bhushan referred to an article written by senior journalist N Ram in The Hindu newspaper, Attorney General K K Venugopal opposed it, saying his write-ups were based on stolen documents and an investigation into the theft is on.
Venugopal told the Supreme Court that people who accessed the documents were guilty of violating the Official Secrets Act. But Prashant Bhushan said there was no infringement, explaining that the information on file notings was open under the Right To Information.
Later, Venugopal read out the RTI Act and said it exempted defence documents from disclosure.
The government has informed the top court that the removal of the papers is already being investigated.
The top court had, on December 14, 2018, dismissed four petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the purchase of the jet fighters, saying the decision-making process was not in doubt and that it cannot go into the question of pricing and the choice of offset Indian partner by Dassault. The plea for recall of the judgment was filed by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, journalist-turned-politician Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan among others.
The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph had on February 26 decided to hold an open court hearing of the pleas seeking the recall of its judgment on several grounds, including information that has come into public domain after its pronouncement.
“If an act of Corruption is committed,Government cannot take shelter under the Official Secret Act” said Justice K M Joseph
“Official Secrets Act makes a person liable for criminal punishment for obtaining secret documents. Proceed against the person. But will the document become null?” CJI Gogoi ask AG
Justice K M Joseph asks whether this principle propounded by AG should be applied in Bofors case? Can that case also be shut out?
