Army chief Gen VK Singh during an 'At Home' organised on the occasion of Army Day, in New Delhi. Singh moved the Supreme Court against government's rejection of the claim on his date of birth. PTI Photo
The face-off between the government and General VK Singh is likely to take a decisive turn on Friday when the defence ministry would clarify its stand before the Supreme Court on the age row.
The bench of justice RM Lodha and justice HL Gokhale had on February 3 set one week deadline for
the Centre to withdraw its December 30, 2011 rejecting Singh's representation to record his year of birth as May 10, 1951. It had "prima facie" found the order to be vitiated and said if it wasn't withdrawn, the court would quash it.
The Centre has so far remained tight-lipped about its strategy to counter Gen Singh’s petition. But it was widely reported in the media that the government was unlikely to budge from its stand.
However, Singh on Wednesday filed additional documents to make his case water-tight. The bench had allowed his counsel Prabhjit Jauhar to file the fresh set of papers that included Singh's Indian Military Academy record and documents to show that Army's Adjutant General (AG) branch maintained its officers' records.
The chief has moved the apex court challenging ministry's two orders, July 21 and December 30 2011, refusing to accept his plea to consider May 1951 as his year of birth and not 1950 as recorded with the Military Service (MS) branch.
A question of hierarchy