Marathon meetings took place between AK Antony and PM to decide how to react to Army Chief’s petition in the Supreme Court.
A deceptive silence descended on South Block, which houses the defence ministry and the prime minister’s office, as marathon meetings took place between defence minister AK Antony and PM Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to decide how to react to General VK Singh’s petition in the Supreme Court seeking a change in his date of birth.
Antony met Manmohan Singh who cancelled all appointments to deal with the issue. The PM had made up his mind on the issue many months ago when over 20 MPs met him to lobby for the army chief. He, a source told DNA, sternly told the MPs not to interfere.
On Tuesday, the PM stuck to his position and asked Antony to plan a strategy for Friday when the case is likely to come up for hearing. The government’s brief caveat filed on Tuesday in the Supreme Court only pleads for a hearing at the time of taking up Gen Singh’s petition.
Antony called back defence secretary Sashikant Sharma who was abroad. They and other senior defence ministry officials met for five hours in South Block and decided to look at a few options. They also decided that Lt Gen Bikram Singh, the Eastern Army commander, would succeed Gen VK Singh irrespective of what happened in court.
The government fired its first salvo by filing its caveat, keeping in mind that it needs time to examine the general’s voluminous petition. This, a source said, will help to ensure that the court does not issue a notice to the government on the first day of hearing. The strategy for now is to delay the issue while the government goes about appointing Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the army chief after May 31.
Later, Antony met attorney general GE Vahanvati. The thrust of their argument will be based on Gen VK Singh’s agreement in writing to accept the government’s decision on his date of birth before taking over as the chief. The government believes it has a strong case because of the written submission. It has also factored in an early resignation by Singh, in which case it will still go ahead and appoint Bikram Singh.
Gen Singh’s lawyer Pawan Bali told DNA that he would not mention the matter before chief justice SH Kapadia for an early hearing and would go by the normal listing of cases.
Leading lawyer PP Rao felt the army chief had been misguided on moving the highest court on a “service matter”. He should have moved the Armed Forces Tribunal first to get his date of birth ratified as May 10, 1951, rather than 1950, he said. “Which fundamental right has been violated?” Rao said. “How could he invoke Article 32 and move the apex court for redress of his personal grievance?”
Former Delhi high court justice RS Sodhi had a similar view. “The better option for him was to move the high court.” He also felt the tribunal was the right place to settle a dispute relating to date of birth.
Earlier, efforts for an amicable solution failed despite private meetings between the army chief and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. A former director general of military intelligence, who was VK Singh’s course mate at the National Defence Academy, served as interlocutor between him and the government, but those efforts also failed.
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