NEW DELHI: Army Chief Gen V K Singh will have to retire in May next year, with the government on Thursday deciding to treat May 10,1950 as his date of birth, ending a controversy that has been plaguing the force for several months.
The decision of the defence ministry, reached on the basis of the opinion given by the attorney general and the law ministry, was conveyed to the Army Chief on Thursday, sources said.
The dispute had arisen after two dates of birth– May 10, 1950 and May 10,1951 — were detected in his service records.
In the service records, the matriculation certificate shows May 10,1951 as his date of birth but the UPSC application form filled for entry into the Army has May 10, 1950 as the date of birth.
Determination of the correct year of birth was crucial as his tenure as the Army Chief will be for three years or 62 years of age.
With May 1950 being considered as his date of birth, Genearl Singh will have to retire in May next year when he will complete 62 years of age.
Gen Singh had contended that May 1951 should be treated as his date of birth and sought the view of three former Chief Justices of India to seek support.
However, in view of the controversy, the defence ministry had sought the opinion of law ministry as well as attorney general, which opined that May 10,1950 should be treated as the date of birth since it was entered in the UPSC form and if there had been any discrepancy, it should have been corrected within two years.
Gen Singh is now expected to be succeeded by Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Bikram Singh, who will be the seniormost Lt Gen at the time of Singh’s retirement.
However, the confusion regarding Singh’s correct age became a debating point after a set of Right to Information (RTI) applications were sent to the army and the defence ministry sought legal opinion to reply to the queries.
The law ministry and legal advisers opined that if the defence ministry agreed to change Singh’s year of birth to 1951, it would not be sustainable in a court of law, as there is no provision under the army’s service rules to do so at this stage of his career.
Even before this opinion could be expressed by the government’s legal eagles, there were efforts by some quarters to lobby for conceding Singh’s request for changing his year of birth and thereby his tenure as chief.
Not just former army generals, but even some former judges of the supreme court joined the bandwagon in favour of 1951 as Singh’s year of birth. (Agencies)