NEW DELHI, Feb 10: In a major blow to Indian Army chief General V.K. Singh, the Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain his plea challenging a government order setting his birth date as May 10, 1950 and said it will be forced to dump it if he did not withdraw it.<\/p>\n
The court order has left Gen. Singh with little option over his dragging contention that he was actually born on May 10, 1951 `\u201c not 1950 `\u201c and that the issue concerned his `honour and integrity`\u009d.<\/p>\n
Hearing his petition at the admission stage, the apex court also asked the army chief to honour his letters of 2008 and 2009 accepting 1950 as his birth year.<\/p>\n
It noted that the government order recognising his birth year as 1950 does not suffer from perversity and was not grossly erroneous.<\/p>\n
It pointed out that some `threshold`\u009d documents Gen. Singh had submitted to the government too maintained that he was born in 1950.<\/p>\n
The documents relate to the records of the Union Public Service Commission, the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy.<\/p>\n
The court said there was no prejudice vis-a-vis Gen. Singh and that the government had full faith in him.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the government told the court that it had withdrawn a Dec 30, 2011 order rejecting Gen. Singh`\u2122s plea to reconcile his birth date to May 10, 1950 `\u201d which prompted him to move the court.<\/p>\n
Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati told the court that the government had acted in response to a Feb 3 apex court querry whether it was willing to withdraw the order.<\/p>\n
The court had then said that the Dec 30, 2011 order was `vitiated`\u009d by opinion given by Vahanvati in July 2011 that led the government to reject the army chief`\u2122s request on his age.<\/p>\n
While the army chief maintains that he was born in 1951, the government insists he was born a year earlier.<\/p>\n
The discrepancy was pointed out by the Military Secretary`\u2122s branch in 2006 when Gen. Singh was being considered for promotion as corps commander.<\/p>\n
Since then, all his promotions, including as army commander in 2008 and army chief in 2010, were made on the basis that he was born in 1950.<\/p>\n
If 1950 is taken as Gen. Singh`\u2122s year of birth, he would have to retire in May. If the year is taken as 1951, he would retire in March 2013.<\/p>\n\n
Read more \/ Original news source: http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2012\/02\/apex-court-nixes-army-chiefs-age-plea\/<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"