The Supreme Court (SC) set to deliver its verdicton Rafale review petitions against the apex court's judgement on December 14,2018 upholding the 36 Rafale fighter aircraft on Thursday (November 14). A Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph will pronounce the judgment.

On May 10, the SC had reserved the decision on the reviewpetitions, including one filed by former BJP leaders and Union ministersYashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

The review petitions were filed against the judgment whichwas delivered by the SC in December 2018 in which it had dismissed pleasdemanding a probe into the Rafale deal inked by BJP-led government at theCentre with French firm Dassault Aviation. The SC bench, however, accepted thesubmissions made by the Central government providing details of pricing in theRafale deal and allowed the government to move ahead with the deal.The Rafaledeal hogged the limelight during 2019 Lok Sabha campaign with then Congresschief Rahul Gandhi repeatedly claiming that the Centre was involved in corruptpractices in order to finalise the deal.The Gandhi scion landed himself introuble after he attributed his political slogan “Chowkidar Chor Hai” to thetop court. BJP MP Meenaskhi Lekhi filed a contempt petition against RahulGandhi, who later tendered an apology saying that he had made the statement inthe heat of the moment. The SC will also pronounce its verdict in this case onNovember 14.On October 8, Defence Minister had received the first of the 36Rafale fighter jets on behalf of the Indian Air Force (IAF) at Merignac inFrance. The Union Defence Minister also flew a sortie in Rafale fighter jetfrom Dassault Aviation Mérignac facility. The 68-year-old Singh sat in the rearseat behind the pilot in the cockpit of the two-seater fighter jet. The headtest pilot of Dassualt Aviation, Philippe Duchateau, flew the fighter jet.

Rafale is a highly advanced 4++ Generation fighter whichalso packs a lethal punch with an array of missiles and bombs, including MBDA'sdeadly Meteor and Scalp as part of the Rafale weapons package. While Meteor isthe world's best Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM), thefire-and-forget Scalp is a long-range, air-launched, stand-off attack missilewhich can penetrate deep into hard rock and fortified targets.