India: Top court okays leaked documents as evidence

CHANDIGARH, India

India's top court on Wednesday allowed the use of leaked documents as admissible evidence in a case seeking review of an earlier judgment on a multi-billion-dollar purchase of French warplanes.

"We dismiss the preliminary objection raised by Union of India questioning the maintainability of the review petition," a Supreme Court bench said, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

This comes after a government lawyer told the court in March that the prosecution was basing the controversial Rafale jet deal case on a news report which had used classified documents stolen from the Defense Ministry.

The Rafale jet deal has triggered a political controversy in the country with the main opposition Congress Party accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making the purchase at a three-time higher price than what had been negotiated in 2014, when the Congress was in power.

Modi is also accused of favoring billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group while choosing a domestic partner for Dassault Aviation -- the French aircraft manufacturer.

The Indian government has denied all the allegations repeatedly.

Reacting to the Supreme Court order, the Defense Ministry said: "The petitioners are using documents with the intention to present a selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations on a matter relating to national security."

Last year, the Supreme Court rejected calls to probe the deal, but now is hearing review petitions filed in the case.