While showering praise on Army Chief Gen VK Singh for his "meritorious" 38 years of service to the nation, the Supreme Court asked him to honour the commitment given to the Centre to abide by its decision on his date of birth controversy.
"Commitment must be honoured even if it is not your actual date of birth," a bench comprising justices RM Lodha and HL Gokhale said and made it clear that his plea on date of birth is "bonafide".
"Having given assurance and commitment to the government, I think such meritorious officer of such position should abide by it. We take pride in having officers like you and you have every right to put your grievances," it further said.
The bench agreed with Singh's submission that the petition was not filed in order to get some benefit after his lawyer submitted that the General is ready to resign within 48 hours if government accepts his date of birth of May 10, 1951.
"It does not reflect on your conduct nor is your fault. You have just come to the court to point out government's fault in not correcting your date of birth," the bench said adding "it is not that you have come here out of the blue to get benefit".
The court also said these matter should have been resolved peacefully.
"These matters should not have been dragged to public domain and should be handled peacefully," the bench said.
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