SC says defence procurement and aircraft modernisation not in its purview

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said that defence procurement and aircraft modernisation are not in its purview and acknowledged that the Indian Air Force’s fleet needs to be upgraded and pilots should not be put at risk because of aging fighter jets.

"We are not saying that the government should not upgrade or that pilots should die. But let the government and experts decide," Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, sitting alongside Justice DY Chandrachud, observed while dismissing a public interest litigation. “Defence procurement is a subject in executive domain."

The matter should be decided by experts, the CJI said. The bench was dealing with the PIL filed by one Parneet Singh, who said the government had embarked on a self-destructive course of upgrading its Mirage aircraft fleet instead of buying new fighter jets from elsewhere at a cheaper rate.

Singh's lawyer alleged that although the Mirage aircraft had long outlived its utility, the Indian government decided to upgrade them at a cost of Rs 344 crore per plane instead of switching to other aircraft. This, he alleged, was putting the lives of trained fighter pilots at risk and some 170 pilots have died in the past seven years.

In an emotive plea, Singh's lawyer said that buying new aircraft did not involve any expertise and only required common sense. "Defence procurement is being compromised and the defence of the nation is at stake," he charged. Even the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and parliamentary committees had expressed concern over the old fleet of the Indian Air Force, he said.

At one point, the CJI jocularly commented that people in India were either for the Mirage or the Sukhoi. "Which camp are you?" he asked.

The chief justice then said he would rather leave such decisions to the government and experts and dismissed the PIL.