The Defence Ministry has not received any response from the Adjutant General in the Army headquarters on its direction to change Army chief Gen V K Singh’s date of birth records.
On January 23, the AG branch received letter to change Singh’s year of birth as 1950. A mismatch between records kept at AG and Military Secretary’s Office is at the core of the age dispute.
According to the letter—leaked out to a section of the media — the Ministry of Defence asked for a strict compliance of its order without delay. However, a week has gone by but no response has come from the AG, which is administratively under the control of the Chief of Army Staff.
Defence Ministry sources on Monday clarified it was not a fresh order but merely an advisory explaining certain issues raised by the AG. The Ministry issued a direction for reconciliation of Singh’s date of birth records between the MS and AG branch in July, 2011.
But the AG branch raised certain issues in August 2011, and sought further advice of MoD.
“Such advice was not communicated to AG branch at that time because Singh had filed a statutory complaint before the government for consideration. After statutory complaint was disposed off towards the end of December 2011, the advice sought by the AG branch was conveyed on January 23, 2012, through a letter,” sources said.
Incidentally, the MS branch has not issued the mandatory retirement letter to Gen Singh, even though such letters are sent to the retiring officers months in advance. The MS branch justified its stand saying the matter being sub-judice. The Army chief’s petition in the Supreme Court is slated for hearing on February 3. Singh had appealed to the apex court not only to quash the Defence Ministry’s previous orders rejecting his appeals to change his year of birth to 1951 in the MS records but also to consider 10.05.1951 as his correct date of birth.
