Gen VK Singh found support from Former Army chief on his age row

NEW DELHI: Army chief General V K Singh on Sunday found support from his ex-colleague on his age row with the government. Joining the debate, former Army chief Gen Shankar Roychoudhary said Gen Singh was justified in approaching the highest court of the country to maintain his honour.

In an interview to a television channel, Roychoudhary said Singh was a very honourable man and "I don't think he will compromise on honour unless he was driven to it".

The former Army chief was critical of the manner in which the government handled the whole issue. "Should he (Gen Singh) have gone to court, that is an issue which has to be judged on the basis of overall events," Gen Roychoudhary said.

"It must be examined whether the chief was placed in a position by events in the background and how long they have been going around... Can a chief be placed in certain position by turn of events, the rulings of defence ministry where he has no option but to go to court," he said.

Gen Singh has filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the government's determination of his date of birth as May 10, 1950 as against May 10, 1951 claimed by him.

Asked if it was right for a serving Army chief to have approached the court, Gen Roychowdhury said, "If a serving major or a colonel can go to court, I don't see why a chief can't go to court... He is an Army person with an Army persons' rights."

The former Army chief said it was unjustified to relate it with indiscipline. "There are organisations that take advantage of these principles and force things on Army which it does not like," he added.


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SC dismisses PIL on Army chief's age row

The Supreme Court will today hear a PIL seeking a direction to the government to declare May 10, 1951 as the date of birth of Army Chief Gen VK Singh instead of May 10, 1950. However, the petition filed by Gen Singh himself on the issue may not not come up for hearing as it is neither listed in the list of business nor in the list of matters to be mentioned on Monday.

Singh`s counsel Punit Bali said he has no instructions as of now for mentioning the petition filed by Army Chief when the bench will take up the matter of The Grenadiers Association.

The PIL, filed by The Grenadiers Association (Rohtak Chapter), is listed for hearing before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia on which the Ministry of Defence has already filed a caveat that no order should be passed without hearing it. In the PIL it has been submitted that it was forced to approach the court as both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister AK Antony had rejected Singh`s plea for change of his date of birth.

Earlier on December 16, the NGO`s petition could not be heard by the bench of justices B S Chauhan and TS Thakur as the Justice Thakur had refused to hear it.

The petitioner, an NGO headed by retired colonel BS Koshal, claimed the uncertainty over Army chief`s date of birth has affected his morale impinging on national security. The petition had sought a direction to the government to declare May 10, 1951 as the date of birth of Singh instead of 1950.


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