ET View: Supreme Court gives fair warning to ‘UFO’ conspiracy theorists in Rafale case

It was a bad day for conspiracy theorists on Thursday, with the Supreme Court giving a clean chit to the Narendra Modi government in the ‘Rafale’ case. Three lids were put on three aspects of the case objected by a bunch of petitioners against GoI – one, how the deal was sealed; two, how the final price was reached; three, how the aircraft’s Indian offset partner was chosen. The court essentially reiterated its December 14, 2018 order, stating that the mere perception of individuals can’t be the basis of a judicial ‘fishing and roving enquiry’.

For nostalgia-hunters, alas, India doesn’t have another ‘Bofors’ in the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from French firm Dassault Aviation for Rs 58,000 crore. The Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016, among other policy measures such as relaxing FDI norms in defence equipment from 26% to 49% -- up to 100% for state-of-art technology, makes for an ecosystem far less conducive for jet-propelled fly-by-night operators leading to someone’s backyard here than imagined by the petitioners against GoI.

In the apex court’s words, the petitioners tried to “construe themselves as an appellate authority to determine each aspect of the [Rafale] contract and call upon the court to do the same”, which the court soundly rejected. Thankfully, that puts an end to any attempt to turn India's judiciary into a CA firm. Thursday’s judgment not only gives the Modi government a clean chit, but also gives fair warning to those who may wish to make a profession of spotting defence procurement hera-pheris and making other UFOs – unidentified flying objections.