Flagged and cleared: The basis on which law ministry gave Rafale Deal a go-through

New Delhi, Nov 15: The Supreme Court was told that the Union Law Ministry had flagged the absence of a sovereign guarantee from France for the Rafale Deal. The point in question was what would happen to India's security if the deal falters and results in the non-delivery of the jets and the French government fails to guarantee the recovery of funds.

Attorney General, K K Venugopal told the court that although India did not have a guarantee, it had a letter of comfort and this satisfies concerns that could arise in case of the failure of the deal.

The law ministry is understood to have cleared the deal based on an assurance given by the French Prime Minister. Further the fact that there was an adequate in-built mechanism in the Inter Governmental Agreement also led to the clearing of the deal, an official said.
Further Venugopal said that the secrecy is not regarding the price, but relating to the weaponry and avionics. Rs 670 crore is of the barebone jet and not any of the specifications. We cannot renegade on the agreement with France to disclose confidential information on the specifications about avionics and weaponry.

If such details come out in public domain, our adversaries will take advantage of such a disclosure. It is only out of respect for the SC that the details of the weaponry and avionic were provided, Venugopal also said.

The AG then questioned how the court could look into this issue. While opposing a judicial review the AG said that it is for the experts to examine what kind of weaponry and avionics are required. The question is whether the court is competent to deal with such an issue. The court cannot look into all this, the AG also said.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi then said, any discussion on the price will be only if we commit that it should come into public domain. The court also said that the government does not need to respond to the petitioners' contentions on pricing at the moment. Until we decide that the pricing needs to be debated, there is no need for you to reply on this aspect, the CJI told the AG.

The court then asked if the base aircraft under the new Rafale Deal is the same as the one that was under the agreement with HAL. The AG said that the base aircraft remains the same. However the AG added that the details of the weaponry etc was not disclosed under the old deal as well.