Here's the significance of the Supreme Court asking Rahul Gandhi to file a fresh affidavit in the contempt plea

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court (SC) ordering Congress president Rahul Gandhi to file a fresh affidavit by Monday in the contempt plea case filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi alleging that Gandhi had wrongly attributed the comment 'Chowkidar chor hai' to the SC's order on the Rafale deal, Republic TV has broken down exactly what went on in the apex court.

1. The Supreme Court's hearing lasted for 45 minutes with Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing Rahul Gandhi while Mukul Rohatgi represented petitioner Meenakshi Lekhi. While listening to the arguments, an irked Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asked Rahul Gandhi's counsel if the two affidavits filed by the Congress chief were any different from each other. When Singhvi replied in the negative, the CJI asked what did Gandhi had meant by the 'expression of regret' mentioned in the affidavits, asking whether the 'expression of regret' quantifies as an apology.
2. Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul had warned Singhvi saying, "when you make a mistake, you should accept that you’ve made a mistake." This led to Singhvi saying for the first time that Rahul Gandhi apologizes for that statement. Now, on the direction of the Supreme Court, a third affidavit will have to be filed by Rahul Gandhi formally apologising for his comment.
3. This apology is important as a contempt plea and a contempt affidavit usually have an unconditional apology in the first paragraph. The Supreme Court's frustrated reaction to the Congress chief's affidavit clearly indicates that 'fancy flowery language' strategy adopted by the party has backfired.
4. Post the hearing, Singhvi said that he quoted the three offending comments for which Rahul Gandhi has expressed regret and made it clear that this regret is for the attribution only. 

Rahul Gandhi To Officially Apologise To The Supreme Court In An Affidavit For Rafale Remarks: Here's How It Happened

Earlier on Monday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi expressed "regret" once again in the Supreme Court for his "chowkidar chor hai" remark on the Rafale review petition order which the apex court had said was "incorrectly attributed" to it when it had dismissed the Centre's objections to hearing the petitions filed by former union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha against the initial Rafale order passed by the apex court on December 14, 2018 dismissing petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into Rafale fighter jet deal with France.