NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on whether it would examine the documents related to Rafale deal, which the government had said were stolen from the Ministry of Defence and should not be presented in court.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre had urged the bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, to dismiss the clutch of review petitions on the ground that they had relied on privileged documents (covered under the Official Secrets Act) that were leaked from the Defence Ministry.
After Attorney General KK Venugopal argued that the petitioners had illegally gained access to the classified files and made them public, Justice KM Joseph, who was part of the three-judge bench, pointed out that in cases of corruption and human rights’ violation, the Right to Information (RTI)Act may apply even for sensitive information.
The bench further stressed that the RTI Act had ushered a revolution on the concept of confidentiality of documents and said, “According to you (government), these documents affect national security and the court should not interfere, we have to consider it under the RTI Act.”
AG claimed privilege over documents pertaining to the fighter jet deal with France and told the bench that no one can produce them in court without the permission of the department concerned and referred to Section 123 of the Evidence Act and provisions of RTI Act to buttress his claim.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, one of the petitioners, opposed the submission and said that the Rafale documents, which AG said are privileged, have been published and are already in public domain.