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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