The 'matter of honour versus tenure'

It is here that the young Vijay Kumar Singh committed his first “error” by filling his date of birth as May 10, 1950 in the application form which he completed on July 29, 1965.

Some media reports state that it was his school teacher who had helped him fill up the form and entered his date of birth erroneously. Under the UPSC rules, the candidate has to fill the form in his own handwriting and certify that the statements made therein are true to the best of his knowledge. Any violation, it is opined, may result in disqualification. Though initially Singh had maintained that it was a clerical error in all subsequent petitions General Singh stated that the error was “inadvertent”.

For verifying the age, under the rules, the UPSC requires that either the candidate submit his matriculation certificate or in case he is to appear for the examination have an age certificate issued by the headmaster/principal of the institution from where he is studying, showing the date of his birth or his exact age as recorded in the institution’s ‘Admission Register’.

As Vijay Kumar Singh was to appear for his Class X Board examinations being conducted by the Rajasthan Secondary Education Board later that year to provide proof of date of birth he states that his father, Colonel Jagat Singh, had a certificate issued from the Officer Commanding of his unit, 14 Rajput Regiment, dated August 3, 1965, submitted to the UPSC before the written examinations that was held in December 1965. Significantly, the year mentioned of his birth is 1951 and not 1950.

Getting into NDA
In early May 1966, the UPSC wrote to him stating that he had been declared successful in the NDA examinations and provisionally admitted to the Academy, subject to furnishing proof of having passed the Class X examination and a medical examination.

Vijay Kumar Singh states that his father then wrote to the headmaster of Birla Public School on June 10, 1966 stating that he needed to send proof to the UPSC that his son had passed Class X. The school is said to have issued a transfer certificate during that period. In the General’s writ petition, a duplicate copy of the transfer certificate from the Birla Public School is produced as an annexure which lists his date as May 10, 1951. Curiously, the duplicate copy is issued on October 19, 2011. No date is indicated of when it was originally issued.

On June 18, 1966, the UPSC sent a letter about the discrepancy in the date of birth as compared to what was filled by Vijay Kumar Singh in the original application form. Singh in his petition stated that his father wrote a letter to the UPSC on 20 June 1966 enclosing the letter sent by the school that he had successfully cleared the Secondary School Certificate with distinction.

Singh also clarified that in response to the letter of the UPSC dated 18 June 1966 he went personally to Delhi with his provisional matriculation certificate that had his date of birth as 10 May 1951. The UPSC issued a receipt to him of the letter on 27 June 1966 and he has produced a copy of the receipt in his writ petition.

When the MoD went into the whole matter last year, the UPSC reported back that it was not able to locate any of the records pertaining to the correspondence with Vijay Kumar Singh or his father, Jagat Singh. Also they were not able to retrieve the personal files of his father which would have had a record of his son’s date of birth as these files were destroyed after a certain period of time.

To prove that barring the UPSC form he had consistently maintained his date of birth as 10 May 1951, General Singh cites a whole range of documents during that period in which it is listed as such. Among them is the SP Form-103 which every candidate seeking commission in the armed forces has to fill up before he appears before the Service Selection Board (SSB) interview. General Singh filled up his form on May 9, 1966 and in it had entered 10 May 1951 as his date of birth.

The MoD in its order rejecting Singh’s statutory complaint points out that the five copies of the SP-103 forms were forwarded to both revenue and police authorities of Rajasthan and Punjab “for verifying the character and antecedents with reference to the place of residence of the complaint.” The implication was that these authorities were not vouching for the date of birth that Singh had entered in the SP-103 form but his character and standing.

The MoD then pointed out that on 9 May 1966 the same date as General Singh had filled up the SP Form 103, another form called SP-Form 44 was filled up by the staff at the SSB. On that the date of birth was recorded as 10 May 1950.

The second anomaly
At the Indian Military Academy (IMA), every candidate has a separate Dossier maintained including personal particulars and training record. The second big anomaly occurs when Vijay Kumar Singh fills up the form for his Dossier and in the date of birth column he writes 10 May 1950. Singh had arrived at the Academy on 21 July 1969 and the form in question was filled up by him on 29 July 1969, eight days later. It was countersigned by an officer of the IMA on July 30, 1969.

As an explanation as to why he wrote 1950 instead of 1951 on the Dossier, Singh stated that the “orders were to fill the column for date of birth as per the UPSC application form.” The MoD hammers that anomaly home in its order dismissing Singh’s complaint stating, “No order directing this is forthcoming on the records.”

Singh, however, has other evidence to counter such assertions. In his petition he stated that the IMA issues an identity card with a unique number that is carried by the officer throughout his service. Importantly, the ID card that he was issued has 10 May 1951 as his date of birth.

The MoD in its orders is hard put to explain this contradiction. It relies on the opinion given by Goolam Vahanvati, the Attorney General of India, who pointed out that the requisite checking was not done by the Manpower Planning Directorate regarding verification of the date of birth in Singh’s case at this stage.

The MoD goes on to state that the Record of Service was a document prepared by Singh himself and then countersigned by the officiating Commanding Officer. It concludes, “In the absence of authentication of 10 May 1951 as the date of birth, its basis for the Record of Service cannot be accepted.”

A twist in the tale
By now, it is apparent that the two branches of the Army, the Adjutant General (AG) Branch and the Military Secretary (MS) Branch, were maintaining two different dates of birth for Vijay Kumar Singh. While the AG looks after recruitment and keeps tracks of all Gentleman Cadets selected, the MS takes over once the officer is commissioned and maintains his records of service and oversees his postings and promotions. There was no reconciliation of the records then and has not been to this date.

Under Army rules, Singh has to request a correction of his date of birth in the records within two years of having being commissioned after which he forfeits the right to do so. Singh was commissioned in the Indian Army on 14th June 1970 and was posted to an Infantry Unit, the 2nd Rajput Battalion, based then in Delhi.

There is though another twist in the tale. The UPSC rule states that the original matriculation certificate must be sent to the concerned Army directorate as soon as it is received. Though Singh passed his Class X board examinations in 1966, he received his certificate only in 1971 because of the oddest set of circumstances.

According to him by the time the certificate was sent to his father’s unit address he had been transferred out. It was then sent to his village in Hisar where it lay unattended till he came home in 1971 and discovered it. On the certificate his date of birth is shown as 10 May 1951. Singh said he had forwarded it to the AG Branch that year itself ie 1971. If so, it was well within the statutory period of two years for making changes in his date of birth.

Refuting Singh’s claim, the MoD in its order of 30 December 2011 stated that there is no correspondence to show that Singh had submitted his certificate then or that the Army had corrected his date of birth. As proof the MoD stated that in the mandatory Gazette notification issued on 18 September 1971 with respect to the 45th Regular Course of the IMA which Singh attended the date of his birth in this vital document was printed as 10 May 1950.

The MoD pointed out that the file was initiated by the MS Branch it was seen and vetted by the AG’s recruiting branch, the Comptroller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) and finally approved by the Ministry itself. Then when the Army List 1974-75 was published, the most authentic document that listed those who had been commissioned, Singh’s name figured and there his date of birth is mentioned as 10 May 1950.

More attempts are made
Intriguingly, Singh states in his petition that he made another effort in 1985, (he was then a Major), to have his date of birth reconciled in the Army records. In his statutory complaint to the Government in August 2011, he stated that in 1985, when a friend mentioned to him about the discrepancy in the Army List, he approached the AG Branch Manpower Planning (MP) 5/6 for help. He was informed that as per their records his date of birth was 15 May 1951 and that “as they were they were the designated authority on these matters, therefore, I should not worry about the Army List and it would get automatically updated with corrected data.”

Vijay Kumar Singh made his next attempt to change his date of birth as a Brigadier in 2002 when he approached the Management Information System Organisation (MISO) wing that publishes the Nominal Roll of Brigadiers and above. In the Nominal Roll, his date of birth was listed as 10 May 1950. Singh stated that he had forwarded a copy of his matriculation certificate to MISO. But in its order the MoD pointed out, “Here again, there are no records either with MISO or with the complainant to substantiate the assertion.”

Yet it isn’t as if the MoD is without fault. The first time that the MoD officially acknowledged that there was a discrepancy in the records maintaining his date of birth was in 2006 when Singh was a Major General and had completed 36 years of service in the Army.

The M S Branch had sent a proposal to the MoD empanelling Singh in the rank of Lieutenant General to be posted as Commander of 10 Corps. Such a procedure is followed as any promotion from the rank of Major General to Lieutenant General in the Army has to be approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) chaired by the Prime Minister.

The then Joint Secretary (G and Air), MoD, in a note of 23 April 2006 to the Army HQ pointed out that Singh’s date of birth in the ‘Nominal Roll’ was recorded as 10 May 1950 whereas in the ‘Paramount Card’, which is a summary of his entire record of service, the date given was 10 May 1951. The Joint Secretary wanted the note to reflect the correct date of birth.

On 3 May 2006, Lt General Richard Khare, the then Military Secretary, wrote to Singh stating these anomalies and ended with, “You are hereby requested that, in future, you may reflect the correct date of birth which is 10 May 1950… Alternatively, you may clarify the variance and the correct date of birth as known by you.”

Singh, who was then Chief of Staff at 15 Corps HQ, replied to this memo on 10 May 2006. After starting with “My dear General” he went on to explain the background of the case and ended the letter stating, “I have always retained the impression that the necessary correction would have been carried out by the MS Branch at the behest of AG’s Branch. It appears that this impression has been wrong and a doubt has come up almost 35 years after submission of correct certificates. It is required that necessary corrections may now be made per records maintained by AG’s branch.”

Conflicting accounts
In his statutory complaint to the Government, Singh stated he met Khare after he sent the letter to him. According to Singh, Khare explained “the entire issue in detail. I was told that if my confidential reports reflected my date of birth as 10 May 1951, then I should have no reason for concern. I was told that all records will be checked again and the reconciliation will be carried out.”

Singh stated that on the basis of this reassurance he did not pursue the matter further about correction of his date of birth at that time. Singh was then promoted as a Lieutenant General and posted as General Officer Commanding of the Ambala based 2 Corp.

The MoD, though, has a different account of how Khare handled the matter after he received Singh’s letter of 10 May 2006. It stated that Khare wrote a letter dated 21 August 2006 to Singh, who then had taken over as GOC, 2 Corps, stating, “After due examination of the case and in light of the rule position, facts brought out and documents forwarded by you along with the DO letter, we regret to inform you that the case for change/correction of your date of birth cannot be processed at this belated state.”

Silence speaks
There is a lull in the correspondence for over a year before Singh brings up the issue of the correction of his date of birth. In doing so Singh appears to have resorted to unusual tactics. He approached the AG’s branch to officially clarify his age. Accordingly, in October 2007 Lt Col BR Chharang, AAG MP 5 & 6 issued a “To Whomsoever it May Concern” letter that stated “As per the records maintained by this headquarters, IC 24173 W Lieutenant General Vijay Kumar Singh, AVSM, YSM, was commissioned in the Indian Army on 14 June 1970. The date of birth of the General Officer is 10 May 1951.”

Having obtained confirmation from the AG’s branch of his date of birth, he forwarded the certificate to Lt Gen P.R. Gangadharan, who replaced Khare as Military Secretary. In his covering letter of 10 December 2007 to Gangadharan he refers to Khare’s letter of 21 August 2006 rejecting his request to correct his date of birth and stated, “You are kindly requested to reconcile your records to reflect the correct date of birth. It is also requested that henceforth my correct date of birth as per AG records may please be reflected.”

By then Singh is being considered for promotion to the rank of Army Commander to be posted as GoC-in-C, Eastern Army Command. His letter asking for his date of birth to be reconciled is brought to the notice of Bimal Julka, the then Joint Secretary (G/Air), who then wrote to the Military Secretary wanting to know the reasons behind it.

On 20 December 2007, Gangadharan, the Military Secretary, wrote back to Julka, giving a detailed background of the case stating, “In view of the above, his official date of birth continues to be entered as 10 May 1950.” From the records it appears that Singh meanwhile independently pursued the issue with the AGF branch, in early January 2008, Major General SR Ghosh, the then ADG MP & P, puts out a detailed note stating that all records available in his office indicated that his date of birth is 10 May 1951.

The author is Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune Group of Newspapers. The article is an excerpted version of a series of articles which appeared in The Tribune between January 23 and 30, 2012. It is reprinted with the permission of The Tribune)