A quick reading of the much-awaited judgment on the Rafale deal on the small font of a mobile phone was one of petrifying shock and complete disbelief, verging on the surreal. With due respect to the Hon’ble Bench, one wonders how could the venerated apex court of the land go wrong on a matter that bristles with every (in)conceivable wrong and challenges the soaring abstraction and sanctity of rules, procedures, and, in a way, the very foundation of our much-loved, much-admired, and much-adumbrated, rule of law. For someone who has spent a lifetime in this highly intricate world of defence procurement with its accompanying pitfalls and humongous spends off taxpayer’s money, and fought every conceivable battle to protect public money to ensure financial and intellectual honesty, this is uncannily gnawing and lacerating. Let me first list out the flaws.