New Delhi: While showering praise on Army
Chief Gen VK Singh for his "meritorious" 38 years of service
to the nation, the Supreme Court asked him to honour the
commitment given to the Centre to abide by its decision on his
date of birth controversy.
"Commitment must be honoured even if it is not your
actual date of birth," a bench comprising justices RM Lodha
and HL Gokhale said and made it clear that his plea on date
of birth is "bonafide".
"Having given assurance and commitment to the government,
I think such meritorious officer of such position should abide
by it. We take pride in having officers like you and you have
every right to put your grievances," it further said.
The bench agreed with Singh's submission that the
petition was not filed in order to get some benefit after his
lawyer submitted that the General is ready to resign within 48
hours if government accepts his date of birth of May 10, 1951.
"It does not reflect on your conduct nor is your fault.
You have just come to the court to point out government's
fault in not correcting your date of birth," the bench said
adding "it is not that you have come here out of the blue to
get benefit".
The court also said these matter should have been
resolved peacefully.
"These matters should not have been dragged to public
domain and should be handled peacefully," the bench said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, February 10, 2012, 21:53