Army chief to retire on schedule, notice sent in

More than two weeks after the Supreme Court put a lid on his age row, army chief General VK Singh has been issued a retirement letter, informing him that his tenure will end on May 31. HT reports.

More than two weeks after the Supreme Court put a lid on his age row, army chief General VK Singh has been issued a retirement letter, informing him that his tenure will end on May 31.

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The military secretary (MS) branch of the army served the letter to him recently after a delay of about 7 months, a defence ministry official said.

The letter is normally issued to officers about 10-11 months before their due date of retirement, but it had not been served to Singh as he had filed pleas to get his date of birth changed from May 10, 1950 to May 10, 1951.

It is learned that the defence ministry had asked the MS branch in November last year to issue the letter after rejecting Singh's plea to change his date of birth.

But the department expressed its inability to do so on the ground that the matter was sub-judice. Singh had then filed a statutory complaint with defence minister AK Antony to accept May 10, 1951 as his date of birth.

On February 10, the army chief withdrew his plea in the Supreme Court that held that May 10, 1950 will remain as his date of birth in service records.