SC disposes Army chief's DOB plea, Singh to retire

2:48 pm: After withdrawing the petition against the government Puneet Bali, lawyer for General VK Singh, said, “We have resolved the matter amicably with the government. AG said govt has full faith in Army chief. Our honour has been restored**.**” He also said that the tenure which is at the pleasure of the government is not an issue. The DOB shall be 1950 only for the purposes of his service records of the army, he said. Bali said that the Army chief will write a letter to the government in the next 48 hours saying that he will retire this year. 2.20 pm: According to reports on Twitter the full order on Army chief’s petition is being dictated. For now it appears that the Supreme Court has disposed the Army chief’s DOB plea. The petition has been withdrawn.  Television news report says that the final call now belongs to the government. The judgement is a huge blow for General VK Singh. Court tells him he has to abide by his commitment and honour his letters of 2008 and 2009 accepting the DOB as 1950. 1:56 p.m.  Supreme court has given the army chief  three options to choose from. One to withdraw the petition, two sort out the issue with the govt or three make do with the orders that it pronounces. Court says no prejudice was done to General VK Singh and that it has full faith in the government. The court says that they are not trying to determine the DOB of Army chief but are concerned with recognition of DOB of Army chief in official records. Pushed on the backfoot, the government had earlier today told the Supreme Court that it was withdrawing its December 30 order rejecting Army chief General V K Singh’s statutory complaint for treating his date of birth as May 10, 1951 instead of May 10, 1950. The Supreme Court has taken the view that the court is looking at the date of birth only from the service point of view. The Attorney General has reiterated that the government still holds the General in high regard. 1: 00 pm The hearing on the age-row is currently adjourned for now. The court will re-adjourn at 2pm and the final judgement will be pronounced then. Here are some of the questions that were raised by the court to General VK Singh while the proceedings were in place. SC: Your explanation that you were not aware that your DOB is recorded as 1950 in govt records is prima facie not acceptable. Army Chief lawyer to SC: Even UPSC relies upon the certificates filed there .. We clarified to UPSC in 1966. SC: Does UPSC continue to hold ur DOB as 1950, this is what must be clear.. why did you mention ur DOB as 1950 in the year 1969.. The problems is in all your primary records wrote your DOB as 1950. Army Chief lawyer Lalit,  explains that as rules required the same DOB as mentioned at the time of NDA so we had no option but to write DOB as 1950. 12:30 pm Justice Lodha asked the army chief’s counsel if they want to say that UPSC should show his DOB as 1950? The lawyer responds, “Logically yes. The time of commissioning the DOB records were reconciled. UPSC also records that matriculation certificate is the principal document to be relied upon.” Justice Lodha comments that it is unfortunate that such a meritorius officer is dragged into public domain like this. Supreme Court bench responds that there is nothing to show that UPSC ever corrected your DOB. Meanwhile television reports are saying that Supreme Court has asked the General to withdraw his plea and it looks like the judgement could go against the Army chief. [caption id=“attachment_209495” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“PTI”]  [/caption] A Supreme Court bench of Justice RM Lodha and Justice HL Gokhale had given the government a one week deadline to withdraw its 30 December, 2011 order. The deadline had been given to the government on 3 February. During the court proceedings Attorney General GE Vahanvati had informed the Supreme Court about the government’s decision to quash the 30 December order. Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman had cited three letters of Gen Singh to say that he has been unequivocally given his personal rights.