Indian army chief moves SC over DoB issue

In an unprecedented move, Indian army chief General VK Singh on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the government’s rejection of his claim on his date of birth. In writ petition, he is believed to have questioned the government’s decision to treat his date of birth as May 10, 1950 instead of May 10, 1951 as claimed by him on the basis of his matriculation certificate and other documents. This is the first time that any service chief has dragged the government to the court of law. The petition has been filed and senior advocate UU Lalit will represent General Singh in the SC. In his petition, Gen Singh has said the matter was related to his “honour and integrity” as he headed a force of “13 lakh personnel”. He questioned why the government had chosen to “change” his date of birth after he had spent 36 years in service and been promoted throughout the career. Gen Singh’s action caps months of tussle between him and the Ministry of Defence during which he made two statutory representations to the ministry. Defence Minister AK Antony had recently rejected his statutory representation which ended all the internal appeal options on the subject for the general. By this decision of the government, Gen Singh will have to retire on May 31. He has been contending that May 10, 1951 should be treated as his actual date of birth as it was mentioned in his matriculation certificate but the Defence Ministry has rejected it as May 10, 1950 is the date entered in his UPSC entrance form for National Defence Academy (NDA).