In December last year, the Supreme Court said that there is no need to look into the Rafale fighter jet deal. However, in February, a review petition was filed by Prashanth Bhushan and two others in the apex court on the basis of a report published in 'The Hindu' (newspaper). As per the petition, there were possibly some issues with the Rafale deal going by the objections raised by some IAS officers. In March, the Centre submitted to the court that the petitioners were wrong because they were relying on information that was procured illegally by them. The review petition was based on "leaked documents", the Centre argued.

On Wednesday, the court has dismissed the Centre's objections. The maintainability of the review petition can't be questioned just because the petitioners have quoted leaked documents, the Supreme Court today said.

The SC's decision to strike down government's objections comes just a day before the first phase of polling.