Government may accept vice admiral Shekhar Sinha's voluntary retirement plea

The government is expected to accept the voluntary retirement request of western naval commander Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha after he wrote to the government seeking "justice".Vice admiral Sinha was upset about being superceded when the government chose RK Dhowan as the new navy chief earlier this week.

In a complaint to the defence ministry, Vice admiral Sinha had written that if "justice" cannot be done to him, he should be given voluntary retirement, according to a defence ministry official. Given the election fever, the outgoing UPA-II government would like to put an end to the controversy by accepting his plea for voluntary retirement.

"Accepting premature retirement application of vice admiral Shekhar Sinha seems to be the only available option before the government. And the decision in this regard will be taken at the earliest to put an end to the episode," said a source.

The defence ministry will soon communicate its decision to the naval headquarters over vice admiral Sinha's plea for refusing to work under his junior officer.

The government appointed Dhowan as the new navy chief on Thursday, nearly 50 days after the position was left vacant with the sudden departure of navy chief Admiral DK Joshi; he resigned over repeated mishaps involving warships. On Thursday evening, vice admiral Sinha, the senior-most naval commander, put in his papers for voluntary retirement.