Rafale Deal and the Indian Supreme Court

Narayani Ranganathan has written very good post on MiLords. 

Every  single word is relevant.

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By Over-Reach On Rafale, SC Is Now Party To The Weakening Of Institutions

If the Modi government has any self-respect, it should show the court its place in democracy and say it cannot divulge details of the Rafale deal in a “sealed cover”.

The next time the Indian Army chief is asked to fight a war, maybe he should consider placing his battle plans in a “sealed cover” before the Chief Justice of India (CJI) so that the country achieves true transparency before it can legitimately defend itself. After all, what’s better than transparency in a democracy adjudicated by men (almost always men) in black robes?

If you think this statement is rather outlandish, this is the logical outcome of the Supreme Court demanding to know the price of a Rafale combat aircraft. In hearings (31 October), a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and justices U U Lalit and K M Joseph, said “the court would like to be apprised of the details with regard to the pricing/cost, particularly the advantage thereof, if any, which again will be submitted to the court in a sealed cover.”

We will come back to the farcical nature of contents delivered in “sealed covers” later, but let’s first look at how the court has inserted itself into a technical decision regarding which aircraft the country should buy for its defence, how much it should pay for the same, and whether the price paid is worth it.

Earlier, on 10th October, the bench had merely wanted to know how the government decided on its Rafale deal with Dassault, and the government duly complied by giving it a statement on the decision-making process in a “sealed cover” on 26 October. Now, the court not only wants to know how the deal was decided, but whether the decision itself was right.

How is it the job of the judiciary to decide this issue? Is it even equipped to do so? Let’s say the government tomorrow gives it another sealed envelope indicating that the price being paid for each Rafale is “x”, and then offers a paragraph each on the advantages of each weapon system, radar, or device attached to the combat aircraft.

The farce involved in giving information in a sealed envelope should be obvious to anyone who can think beyond basics. Sealed covers are not meant to remain sealed; at the very least, the CJI will have to open it. Will he then take one look and decide for himself if the answers given are valid or not, especially when the subject is technical? Will he discuss it with his spouse, or fellow-judges before arriving at a decision? 

 What, one may ask, is the court’s competence to decide on any of this?

Zero.

And if it is zero, it follows that if at all the court wants to figure out whether the price was right, the weapon systems were right, and that the difference in prices paid for a fully-loaded Rafale and the deal being negotiated earlier was justified, will it not need another expert panel to advise it on the matter before it takes a view? Or will it ask Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha to help it decide whether the deal was kosher? 

No. It will call in experts.

And once experts are going to be consulted, where is the question of secrecy in a defence deal with huge implications for security? How many 'experts' will an 'eyes only' document be shown to till it is leaked to the press, and possibly hostile countries?

Why then it is so outlandish to suggest that even war plans can be given to the court in a sealed envelope?

Now after discussing the contents with many 'experts' what will the CJI do with them ? Will he read and destroy? How is the government to know that these secret details are indeed destroyed to be sure that they don’t fall in the wrong hands?

Will the CJI file an affidavit to himself that all secret contents are destroyed, and that he personally supervised it?

The opposition, knowing the government is in a spot, is cheering the judiciary on and giving it covering fire in this blatant effort to dismantle the constitutional separation of powers between elected governments and the judiciary. There is a chorus that the government is “destroying” institutions, as if this judicial encroachment is itself not an attempt to circumscribe and debase the institution of the executive and the legislature. 

The executive is as much a creature, and “basic feature”, of the Constitution as the judiciary, and the Supreme Court should respect this separation of powers and not try to run the country – or its defence – through judicial orders. 

This act of the judiciary is a coup. It attempts to undermine not just the elected representative, but the people of this country (for who the court never had any respect ever)

And one may well ask what happened to the names of eight allegedly corrupt former CJIs that were given to the Supreme Court in 2010 by Shanti Bhushan, the father of the compulsive PIL-ster now using the judiciary to demand more secret disclosures in sealed covers.

We are heading towards kritarchy, or rule by the judiciary, and this is an even bigger threat to democracy than mere authoritarian leaders. The latter are elected, and hence can be rejected by the electorate, but the judiciary is accountable to no one but itself. 

If the Narendra Modi government has any self-respect, it should tell the court it cannot divulge these details. Let the court do what it will. What will it do? Send the PM and the Defence Minister to jail?