New Delhi: The Army has moved the Supreme
Court challenging an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal
directing it to change its official Kargil War history to
correct the "bias" shown against a Brigadier.
"We have approached the SC against the Tribunal order
in May last year directing us to change the official Kargil
War history," Army officials said here.
The Tribunal had on May 27, 2010 indicted Lt Gen
Kishan Pal, 15 Corps Commander during the war, saying he had
"falsified Kargil War reports and showed bias" towards Brig
Devindar Singh, who was commanding the 70 Infantry Brigade
under his overall command.
In September last year, the Army had filed a review
petition against the verdict in the Tribunal but it was
dismissed by the Bench saying that the Army should be
"thankful" as the previous verdict could have been "worse" as
decorations of Lt Gen Kishan Pal could have also been
withdrawn.
In its order, the Tribunal had asked the Army to
expunge Singh`s Annual Confidential Report(ACR) written by Lt
Gen Pal and directed it to correct certain records of the
Kargil conflict.
Singh had moved the Delhi High Court in 2006,
complaining that his role as leader of the 70 Infantry Brigade
in the Batalik Sector had been underplayed and this had cost
him a war medal and promotions.
The Tribunal had accepted his contention that his
contribution had been incorrectly represented by Lt Gen Kishan
Pal and held that "the ACRs were not written in an objective
and unbiased manner".
In view of the adverse ACR by Lt Gen Pal, Brigadier
Singh could not be promoted to the rank of Major General.
Among the records which the Tribunal had wanted to be
corrected was a paragraph in the After Action Report of the
war and two other paragraphs of the Kargil War account.
After the Army filed the review petition, Singh
also filed a plea seeking changes in the Kargil Review
Committee report to absolve him and his unit of the "blame"
for intrusion by Pakistani Army into Indian territory before
the war started.
PTI
