Landmark Supreme Court judgments on Rafale, Sabarimala cases today
New Delhi : After delivering verdicts on Ayodhya land dispute case, Supreme Court is all set to deliver landmark verdicts on the Rafale and Sabarimala cases on Thursday.
The Sabarimala verdict will be announced by a constitution bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
The pleas were filed in the top court after it lifted a ban on the entry of women aged between 10 and 50 years into the premises of Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala on September 28, 2018. The order was reserved by the Supreme Court in February this year.
Nothing less than 65 petitions - 56 review petitions, four fresh writ petitions and five transfer pleas – were filed in the court after massive protest was reported in Kerala against the order.
The temple will be opening on November 16 for the next three months. The Kerala Police has made elaborate security arrangement and planned to deploy over 10,000 officers in and around Sabarimala for the Mandala Pooja festival.
On Thursday, Supreme Court will also be delivering the verdict on Rafale case. It will be delivered by the SC bench of Chief Justice Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph.
The development comes as the top court in December last year had dismissed petitions seeking court-monitored probe into Rafale fighter jet deal, saying that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the deal.
The petitioners alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had signed an agreement for 36 Rafale jets on April 10, 2015, without any such requirement being given by the Air Force Headquarters and without the approval of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which are the mandated first steps for any defence procurement.
