The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Centre to circulate a letter for adjournment in tomorrow’s scheduled hearing on Rafale review pleas.A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi allowed the Centre’s counsel to circulate the letter among parties which include petitioners who have filed review pleas.

In a setback to the Centre, the apex court had on April 10 allowed the pleas which relied on leaked documents for seeking review of its Rafale judgment and dismissed the government’s preliminary objections claiming “privilege” over them.

The Centre had submitted that the three privileged documents were unauthorisedly removed from the Defence Ministry and used by the petitioners to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018, judgment of the apex court which had dismissed all pleas challenging the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.The top court had rejected the objections raised by the Centre that those documents were not admissible as evidence under Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act, and no one can produce them in court without the permission of the department concerned as they are also protected under the Official Secrets Act.

The apex court had also noted that no law enacted by Parliament specifically barring or prohibiting the publication of such documents on any of the grounds mentioned in Article 19(2) of the Constitution has been brought to its notice.