SC upholds govt decision on army chief's age

The government as well as the army chief, Gen V K Singh, on Friday retreated from confrontation in the Supreme Court, after last fortnight’s unprecedented eyeball-to-eyeball stance.

The government partly withdrew its July 2011 order on Singh’s date of birth, and the general dropped his plan to pursue legal options. The no-win situation was occasioned by the criticism both the sides received from the bench comprising Justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale.

In the order, passed after more than two hours of arguments in a jam-packed court, it was recorded that the general did not want to press his petition in view of the statement of Attorney General G E Vahanvati and the limited controversy in the writ petition. The petition was “disposed of”.

Having received tongue-lashing from the court last Friday, the government on Friday told the court that it had withdrawn its December 30 order rejecting Singh’s statutory complaint for treating his date of birth as May 10, 1951, instead of May 10, 1950. The Attorney General was in the dock last time for giving opinion on the date of birth controversy and joining the decision-making too, thus violating principles of natural justice.

On the other hand, the army chief also invited his share of criticism from the judges on Friday. He was told that the records showed he had resiled from the commitment he had given earlier regarding age and promotion, leaving the question to the higher authorities. He should have acted gracefully, the judges remarked.

“The documents at the threshold when you wanted to join IMA, NDA contain the date of birth as May 10, 1950. In all documents at the threshold your date of birth is recorded as May 10, 1950,” they said.

The court noted that the government had expressed full faith in him and, therefore, he should continue to work as before. At the same time, he must abide by his commitment and honour his letters of 2008 and 2009 accepting the date of birth as May 10, 1950. If he did so, he would retire in May this year.

During the arguments, the judges also reminded him that he should remember that he was leading the world’s second-largest army.