NEW DELHI,Jan31,2012: The Army's
adjutant general (AG) branch seems to be dragging its feet on reconciling its records, as directed by the defence ministry, to show General V K Singh's date of birth (DoB) as 'May 10, 1950'.With just four days left for the age controversy to be heard by the Supreme Court, some quarters in South Block have begun to point at "a clear conflict of interest" since the two crucial
Army wings involved in the DoB row, the AG and
military secretary (MS) branches, function directly under the Army chief.Gen Singh, the first serving military chief to petition the Supreme Court, wants May 10, 1951 to be recognized as his DoB to restore his "personal integrity and honour". If his DoB is settled at 1951, Gen Singh would serve till March 2013, instead of retiring on May 31 this year as the government wants, changing the entire line of succession in the 1.13-million strong force. But MoD's latest directive on January 23 to the AG and MS branches as well as the Comptroller General of Defence Accounts has reiterated that Gen Singh's "officially recognized" DoB will "continue to remain" as 'May 10, 1950' and all records should be reconciled to that effect, as reported by TOI on Monday. Government sources said "such a direction" had even been issued in July 2011, when an attempt by the AG branch to amend Gen Singh's year of birth to 1951 from 1950 was held to be "null, void and non est (non-existent)".In August, however, the AG branch raised "certain issues" to seek "further advice" on the matter, and Gen Singh himself filed a statutory complaint to get his age "corrected" to May 10, 1951. "Since Gen Singh's statutory complaint was pending before the government for consideration, the advice sought by AG branch was not communicated at that time. But after the statutory complaint was disposed of (without any relief) in December-end, the advice sought was conveyed on January 23," said a source. The MoD letter, incidentally, directed the AG branch to ensure "strict compliance without any further loss of time" in correcting its records to show May 10, 1950 as Gen Singh's DoB. "A compliance report be sent to this ministry at the earliest," it added.The AG branch, however, is yet to respond to this letter. "An interim kind of response may be sent before the
Supreme Court hearing on February 3," said an Army source.
