New Delhi: The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL on Army Chief Gen V K Singh’s age issue saying it was not maintainable in law and noting that he has himself filed writ petition seeking relief. “In our view, the writ petition filed at the behest of an association is not maintainable. The writ petition is dismissed as not maintainable,” a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said.
“This is purely a service matter,” the court said, adding it is not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case.
The bench was furious that the PIL filed by The Grenadiers Association (Rohtak Chapter) annexed the opinions of former chief justices of India in the petition on the age row of Army Chief when they themselves said it is not for being putting up before the court.
He directed the apex court registry not to accept any writ petitions in cases where opinions of former chief justices are annexed.
Gen Singh himself has filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the government that his date of birth be treated as 10.5.1951 and not not 1950.
The bench, also comprising justices A K Patnaik and Swatantra Kumar, said the affected person was not before it and entertaining a PIL based on newspaper headlines will set a “bad precedent” and lead to a “chaotic situation”.
The apex court said it would also not be appropriate for it to express any opinion on the case as the “aggrieved person” is already before it by way of a writ petition.
At the outset, the bench wanted to know from senior advocate Bhim Singh, who was appearing for the association, as to how the PIL was maintainable and why the opinion of some former CJIs were annexed to the petition.
“We are not here to fix the age of Army Chief. This is purely a service matter. Why are you putting up the opinion of former CJIs in the court? Why should the opinion be annexed to the petition? We are on the very limited issue,” the bench said.
The PIL, filed by The Grenadiers Association (Rohtak Chapter), was seeking a direction to the government to declare May 10, 1951 as the date of birth of Army Chief Gen V K Singh instead of May 10, 1950.
It had submitted that it was forced to approach the court as both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister A K 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 T S Thakur as the Justice Thakur had recused from hearing it. (PTI)