The Supreme Court has agreed to hear after two weeks a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a probe into the Rafale jet deal.
The PIL seeks the prosecution of alleged middleman Sushen Gupta and Prime Minister Narendra Modi under charges of cheating, breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy, over alleged kickbacks of 1 million Euros in the Rafale jet deal.
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Sharma cited reports quoting alleged findings of Agence Francaise Anticorruption to claim that French manufacturer Dassault Aviation had paid 1 million euros (Rs 8.63 crore) to one Sushen Gupta as commission to clinch the deal.
He alleged the payment of commission in a government-to-government deal had vitiated the purchase which he claimed inexplicably veered from Eurofighter jets to Rafale.
Advocate-petitioner ML Sharma mentioned his PIL before Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde, who said the matter will be listed after two weeks. No date, however, was set for the hearing.
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Sharma claimed he was making the rounds of the registry of the top court to get this matter listed urgently, but to little avail.
The lawyer also requested the CJI to hear the petition himself, but justice Bobde, who retires on April 23, did not comment on it.
In December 2018, the top court rejected a bunch of petitions, including one by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, along with activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, for a court-monitored probe into the fighter jet deal between India and France.