New Delhi, Nov 14 (IANS): In a scathing attack on the Congress, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday termed the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the review petition on Rafale a "befitting reply" to the leaders as well as the parties who rely on "malicious and baseless" campaign, and demanded an apology for them.

"Today's decision, yet again, reaffirms Modi sarkar's (government's) credentials as a government which is transparent and corruption free," Shah said in a series of tweets.

Referring to the apex court's judgement on the Rafale fighter aircraft, he said it has been proved now that disruption of Parliament over Rafale was a "sham".

"The time could have been better utilised for the welfare of people. After today's rebuke from SC, Congress and its leader, for whom politics is above national interest must apologise to the nation."

Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, had aggressively staged protests in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session of Parliament this year over the multi-crore deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France and disrupted the proceedings on many occasions.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected petitions seeking an inquiry into the Rafale fighter jet deal and warned Gandhi to be "more careful in future" as it closed a contempt case against him linked to the issue.

The top court said it found no merit in the pleas for review of its earlier ruling in which it had given a clean chit to the government and ruled out any "roving" inquiry into the deal for procuring 36 fighter planes from French company Dassault.

The court had on May 10 reserved its order on the petitions filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan and former Union ministers Yashwant Singh and Arun Shourie, seeking a review of its December 14, 2018 ruling that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process involved in the Rafale deal.