New Delhi: An Army Chief "has a right to
retire with dignity", Gen V K Singh has pleaded before the
Supreme Court while accepting the government`s right to
determine his tenure.
Challenging as "illegal and arbitrary" the rejection of
his Statutory Complaint to Defence Minister A K Antony on
December 30 last for accepting May 10, 1951 as his date of
birth, Gen Singh has said that this was also violative of his
fundamental rights.
Seeking the quashing of this order, the Army Chief has
pleaded in a 68-page petition that the government be directed
to treat May 10, 1951 as his date of birth and "grant all
consequential reliefs thereto".
Gen Singh`s unprecedented action in dragging the
government to the apex court followed the ministry`s
insistence that May 10, 1950 would be treated his official
date of birth and that he would consequently retire on May 31
this year.
In his petition, he has stated that he wished to make
it "abundantly clear at this stage" that regardless of the
result of the petition or the controversy surrounding his age,
the government "has the right to determine the tenure of his
office of the Chief of the Army Staff".
PTI
