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Army chief age row: SC questions the Govt's decision-making process

The court gave the government a week's time to find answers.

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Army Chief General VK Singh’s day in the Supreme Court yielded mixed results with the judiciary coming down hard on the Union government for the age-row mess, but also giving it a breather to come up with answers in a week.

The apex court was not convinced by the government’s submissions. It felt the government’s rejection of the army chief’s statutory complaint appears to be “vitiated and is a violation of principles of natural justice.” 

It has set next Friday as the deadline for the government to consider if it wants to “withdraw” the earlier order rejecting the army chief’s submissions.

“We just can’t sit here and shake our heads to your every submission blindly,” the bench said. So far the Defence Ministry has insisted that the chief was born on May 10, 1950 and not 1951 as the chief has stated all along.

The bench questioned the decision-making process of the government and 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 Attorney General 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 bench observed.

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

The double bench of Justice RM Lodha and Justice HL Gokhale posed some difficult questions to the government.

It said the defence ministry on two occasions treated the army chief’s complaints in a perfunctory manner.

The defence ministry had rejected the army chief’s representations on July 21 last year using the attorney general’s legal opinion. But when Gen Singh filed a statutory complaint later in the year, the government dismissed it using the same opinion instead of seeking fresh facts and opinions from a panel of experts. Such a routine handling of a sensitive case found little favour with the apex court.

Instead, the court sought to find an amicable way through this unprecedented crisis by asking the Union government if it would consider withdrawing the December 30 order. To this attorney general G E Vahanvati, submitted that he would seek instructions from the government.

Informing government about the remedies available for Singh, Justice Lodha said, “If the government withdraws its December 30 order, then in that case, Gen Singh’s statutory complaint against July 21 order can be reconsidered by the authorities and there was also an option for him to approach the Armed Forces Tribunal.

The court did not seem open to suggestions that Gen Singh approach the armed forces tribunal since he had only four months to retire if 1950 is accepted as the date of birth.

“Though the tribunal is headed by its retired judge, there are also members (who adjudicate on the cases) who come from the services and there is a possibility that they could either be junior or senior to Gen Singh at some point of time.”

During the hearing, the bench also observed that when it was held that Gen Singh’s complaint was not maintainable, the only remedy he had was to approach the apex court.

The matter will now be heard next Friday.

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