NEW DELHI: The defence secretary on Wednesday advised the Supreme Court that petitioners - Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan - through annexing photocopies of secret defence documents with their evaluation petition on Rafale deal are in charge of leaking sensitive knowledge and jeopardising national safety.
The defence ministry claimed privilege over the documents and advised the court docket that “for the reason that petitioners have unauthorisedly and illegally produced the similar already and disclosed their contents through putting it in public domain, it has change into imperative for the Union executive to hunt removal of these documents from the data of the evaluation petition”. It sought dismissal of the evaluation petitions.
The secretary accused the 3 petitioners of the use of unauthorisedly accessed documents with the purpose of presenting a selective and incomplete image of internal secret deliberations on an issue in relation to national safety and defence. He said attaching unauthorised photocopies amounted to theft.
The documents incorporated an alleged “dissent word” through some participants of the negotiating staff for the Rafale jet fighter acquisition. The executive has said that the word is best a part of a deliberative procedure and its participants signed off at the ultimate submission to the cabinet committee on safety.
“The documents connected through the petitioners are sensitive to national safety which pertains to conflict capacity of fight airplane. Since the evaluation petition has been extensively circulated and is available within the public domain, the similar is available to the enemy/our adversaries,” said defence secretary Sanjay Mitra in his affidavit filed sooner than the SC, a day forward of hearing at the evaluation petitions.
“This places national safety in jeopardy. Without consent or acquiescence of the central executive, those who have conspired in making photocopy of these sensitive documents and annexing it to the evaluation petition/miscellaneous application and thereby committing theft through unauthorised photocopying of such documents, have adversely affected the sovereignty, safety (of the country) and (its) pleasant relations with overseas international locations,” the secretary said.
The affidavit was necessitated after legal professional normal Ok Ok Venugopal advised the SC on March 6 that the documents annexed to the petition had been ‘stolen’ from the defence ministry. He later clarified that he had intended that those had been comparable to theft of sensitive documents.
In the affidavit, Mitra said, “the petitioners are in charge of leakage of sensitive knowledge, which offends the terms of the (inter-governmental) settlement (for acquire of Rafale fighter jets). Additionally, those who have conspired in this leakage are in charge of penal offences under the IPC together with theft through unauthorised photocopying and leakage of sensitive authentic documents affecting national safety.”
The defence secretary said the ministry has ordered an internal inquiry on February 28 into the leakage of sensitive defence secrets and the documents discovering their method to public domain. “It is of utmost worry to the central executive to find out the place the leakage took place in order that in long term the sanctity of decision-making procedure in governance is maintained,” he said.
“The documents introduced through the petitioners did not deliver out how the issues had been addressed and resolved and necessary approvals of the competent government taken. The selective and incomplete presentation of the details and data through the petitioners are supposed to lie to the SC into deriving wrong conclusions which is very harmful to the national safety and public passion,” the defence secretary said and annexed with it the CAG document on Rafale deal.
The defence ministry claimed privilege over the documents and advised the court docket that “for the reason that petitioners have unauthorisedly and illegally produced the similar already and disclosed their contents through putting it in public domain, it has change into imperative for the Union executive to hunt removal of these documents from the data of the evaluation petition”. It sought dismissal of the evaluation petitions.
The secretary accused the 3 petitioners of the use of unauthorisedly accessed documents with the purpose of presenting a selective and incomplete image of internal secret deliberations on an issue in relation to national safety and defence. He said attaching unauthorised photocopies amounted to theft.
The documents incorporated an alleged “dissent word” through some participants of the negotiating staff for the Rafale jet fighter acquisition. The executive has said that the word is best a part of a deliberative procedure and its participants signed off at the ultimate submission to the cabinet committee on safety.
“The documents connected through the petitioners are sensitive to national safety which pertains to conflict capacity of fight airplane. Since the evaluation petition has been extensively circulated and is available within the public domain, the similar is available to the enemy/our adversaries,” said defence secretary Sanjay Mitra in his affidavit filed sooner than the SC, a day forward of hearing at the evaluation petitions.
“This places national safety in jeopardy. Without consent or acquiescence of the central executive, those who have conspired in making photocopy of these sensitive documents and annexing it to the evaluation petition/miscellaneous application and thereby committing theft through unauthorised photocopying of such documents, have adversely affected the sovereignty, safety (of the country) and (its) pleasant relations with overseas international locations,” the secretary said.
The affidavit was necessitated after legal professional normal Ok Ok Venugopal advised the SC on March 6 that the documents annexed to the petition had been ‘stolen’ from the defence ministry. He later clarified that he had intended that those had been comparable to theft of sensitive documents.
In the affidavit, Mitra said, “the petitioners are in charge of leakage of sensitive knowledge, which offends the terms of the (inter-governmental) settlement (for acquire of Rafale fighter jets). Additionally, those who have conspired in this leakage are in charge of penal offences under the IPC together with theft through unauthorised photocopying and leakage of sensitive authentic documents affecting national safety.”
The defence secretary said the ministry has ordered an internal inquiry on February 28 into the leakage of sensitive defence secrets and the documents discovering their method to public domain. “It is of utmost worry to the central executive to find out the place the leakage took place in order that in long term the sanctity of decision-making procedure in governance is maintained,” he said.
“The documents introduced through the petitioners did not deliver out how the issues had been addressed and resolved and necessary approvals of the competent government taken. The selective and incomplete presentation of the details and data through the petitioners are supposed to lie to the SC into deriving wrong conclusions which is very harmful to the national safety and public passion,” the defence secretary said and annexed with it the CAG document on Rafale deal.
Petitioners guilty of leaking Rafale info, govt tells SC
![Petitioners guilty of leaking Rafale info, govt tells SC]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
March 14, 2019
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