Govt mishandled Army chief's DoB plea, says SC

Apex court: Principle of natural justice violated

The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the government’s handling of the complaint made by Army chief General V K Singh on his date of birth.

A bench of justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale asked the government to clarify if it wanted to withdraw its December 30 order that had rejected Singh’s statutory complaint,   saying that the decision was against the principle of natural justice and the process appeared to be vitiated.

“Be clear whether you want to withdraw this December 30 order, or we quash the order,” the court told Attorney General G E Vahanvati, who sought time for fresh instruction in the matter.

The defence minister on December 30 rejected the statutory complaint of Singh who sought May 10, 1951, to be declared his date of birth instead of May 10, 1950, as claimed by the government.

Singh had petitioned the minister against the order of July 21 which regarded May 10, 1950, as his date of birth.

Both orders were passed after taking the opinion of AG, which, according to the Bench, showed there was no independent evaluation.

“The material on record will not withstand the test of principle of natural justice and principle of ultra vires,” the Bench said.

“We are not concerned as much with the decision but we are concerned with the decision-making process which is vitiated as the July 21 order was also based on the consideration of opinion given by the AG and when the statutory complaint of the Army Chief was decided on December 30, there also attorney general’s opinion was taken into consideration,” the court said.

Vahanvati had a difficult time defending the government’s decision after the court pointed out that both July 21 and December 30, 2011, orders were based on his opinions alone. The government’s top law officer maintained that he had no personal stakes in the matter.

The Bench gave Vahanvati a week’s time to seek instruction from the government on the withdrawal of the December 30 order noting that there were other remedies available before Singh.

During the hearing, Solicitor General R Nariman appearing for the Centre submitted that Singh’s petition was a service matter and it had to go to the Armed Forces Tribunal. He contended that the petition was not maintainable.

The court, however, seemed unimpressed.  The tribunal is headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, but there are members who are from the services and there was a possibility that they could either be junior or senior to Gen Singh at some point of time, the court said.

“He is the Army Chief. Members of Armed Forces Tribunal happen to be either his juniors or boss (seniors). We don’t know,” the Bench said. Singh is left with only four months to retire. Gen Singh filed the petition in the apex court on January 16 after the government insisted on treating May 10, 1950, as his date of birth. He had contended that the government’s decision had violated the principle of natural justice.