New Delhi:
The government has run into trouble in the Supreme Court where the chief of the army is seeking a verdict on how old he really is. Here are the five big developments:
1) The Supreme Court has said that the government used a defective process to decide that 1950 is General VK Singh's year of birth. The court has said that the Ministry of Defence should withdraw its order of December 30 where it rejected the army chief's appeal to accept 1951 and not 1950 as his year of birth. That decision makes it necessary for the chief to retire at the end of May this year. The court said that there was no independent evaluation of General Singh's complaint and pointed out that the same legal authority had given his opinion in both the instances.
2) The court made it clear that it was commenting only on the procedure used, and not the decision itself. The court said that the Attorney General GE Vahanvati's opinion had been used twice by the government - once in a consultation in July last year, and then on December 30, when General Singh's statutory complaint was rejected. "Once you (AG) have committed an opinion to an authority to decide on the law, how can you again give your opinion in deciding the complaint? The problem is fundamental. We are not concerned with the correctness of the decision. But the decision-making process is vitiated," said the court.
3) General Singh has been pleading with the government to accept May 10, 1951 and not May 10, 1950 as his year of birth. Records with the army show both dates. The government says that documents with the army's official record-keeper, the Adjutant General, list 1950, and it is these documents that were used to give General Singh several promotions, including the last one that made him the head of the army. The chief says that he has tried on several occasions to have the records corrected, but his appeals were turned down.
4) Both his appeals to the Ministry of Defence were rejected. He then took the government to court. The rules state that he has to retire before he turns 62, or after three years in office- whichever comes first. He took over as army chief in March 2010. If 1951, as he claims, is used as his year of birth, he becomes eligible for another year in office though he has said that this case is about his integrity and honour, not an extension of tenure. In his petition to the Supreme Court, the General said that he accepts that the government has the sole right to decide on his term.
5) The government suggested that General Singh can ask the Armed Force Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body, to make a final call. But the court said that though the tribunal is headed by a retired judge, it can include officers who are junior to General Singh.