Age row: SC to hear army chief's plea on Friday

The Supreme Court is to hear tomorrow Army Chief General VK Singh's plea for a direction to the government to declare May 10, 1951, as his date of birth in place of May 10, 1950.

A bench headed by Justice RM Lodha would hear Gen Singh's plea which has accused the government of treating him in a manner, reflecting total lack of adherence to procedure and principles of natural justice in deciding his age.

Gen Singh took the unprecedented step of dragging the government to the apex court after the Defence Ministry had insisted upon treating May 10, 1950, as his official date of birth, necessitating his retirement on May 31 this year.

Challenging the government's decision to determine May 10, 1950, as his date of birth and not May 10, 1951, Gen Singh, in a 68-page petition, has maintained that his acceptance of 1950 as the year of his birth was given in good faith at the behest of the then chief of army staff and not due to agreement with the conclusion of the Military Secretary's Branch.

"The respondent (government) needs to explain as to why the senior most officer of the army could be treated in a manner which reflects total lack of procedure and principles of natural justice and that too on an opinion obtained from the Attorney General," his petition said.