The Supreme Court is hearing review petitions over its earlier verdict on the Rafale deal. The court, in its verdict, had refused to order a probe into the deal on the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph are hearing the review petitions.

SC in the beginning said it won't look into any supplementary affidavits or other documents not filed before it.

On February 26, in an unusual course of action, the apex court decided to hear the review pleas in open court. According to the normal course of the court, the review petitions are usually heard in chambers.On January 2, petitioners in Rafale fighter jet deal case — Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, both former Union Ministers, and Prashant Bhushan, a noted lawyer — had moved the apex court for review of its Rafale judgment of December 14 .They  had asked for recalling of the judgement and had also sought an oral hearing in the open court for their review plea.

Prashant Bhushan said in his plea that he has not asked for scrapping the deal but wants a court-monitored probe into it. He said that in that aspect, his prayer is different from other petitioners and should be separately dealt with. Bhushan said that the SC gave its judgment based on documents provided in sealed envelops by Centre which had several factual errors.

Critical facts on Rafale suppressed when petition for lodging FIR and investigation was filed, alleges Bhushan.  He said that SC would not have dismissed plea for FIR and probe into Rafale deal had there not been suppression of facts.

AG objected to notes referred to by Bhushan saying that they are stolen from Defence Ministry. CJI said hearing advocate Prashant Bhushan does not mean SC taking on record documents on Rafale deal. CJI asked AG to tell after lunch what action has been taken on theft of documents on Rafale deal.

AG sought dismissal of Rafale review petition and perjury application as they 'relied on stolen documents'. AG said today's 'The Hindu' report on Rafale amounts to influencing hearing in SC and is itself a contempt of court.

Attorney General (AG), KK Venugopal told Supreme Court that certain documents were stolen from the Defence Ministry either by public servants and an investigation is pending. We are dealing with defence purchases which involve security of the state. It is a very sensitive case.

AG said documents on Rafale deal relied on by petitioners marked secret and classified, and in violation of Official Secrets Act.