The Ministry of Defence filed an affidavit today in the Supreme Court about the review petitions filed in the ongoing Rafale case. Filed by Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra on behalf of the ministry, the affidavit stated that the petitioners had committed “theft” as the review petition included “sensitive and secret” documents. The review petition was filed by former ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

The review petition contained four pages marked as Annexure P/4—authenticated as true copy of the originals. The affidavit said: “…it is submitted that the documents attached by the petitioners are sensitive to National Security which relates to war capacity of combat aircraft. Since the Review Petition has been widely circulated and is available in the public domain, the same is available to the enemy/our adversaries.”

The affidavit said this puts “national security in jeopardy. Without consent, permission or acquiscence of the Central Government, those who have conspired in making the photocopy of these sensitive documents and annexing it to the Review Petition … and thereby committing theft by unauthorized photocopying of such documents … have adversely affected the Sovereignty, Security and Friendly Relations with the foreign countries.”

It said though the Centre had maintained “secrecy”, the petitioners were guilty of “leakage of sensitive information”, and those “who have conspired in the leakage are guilty of penal offences under the Indian Penal Code including theft by unauthorized photocopying and leakage of sensitive official documents…”

The affidavit stated that the matter was now the subject of an internal enquiry which commenced on February 28 as it was of “utmost concern” to the Centre to find “where the leakage took place”.

The affidavit also said the petitioners were using these documents to “present a selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations on a matter relating to National Security and Defence”. It said the documents presented failed to bring out “how the issues were addressed and resolved”, indicating that the petitioners were trying to “mislead” the court by “deriving wrong conclusions which is very damaging to National Security and public interest”. It said the Centre was entitled to claim privilege over these documents under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and that the petitioners had “no authority whatsoever” to produce the documents before the court without the government’s explicit permission.

The affidavit concluded that it was “imperative” for the removal of these documents from the record of the review petition and miscellaneous application filed by the petitioners, and the dismissal of both.