AG branch yet to comply with ministry's directive

New Delhi: The Adjutant General’s branch is yet to respond to defence ministry’s letter asking it to correct General VK Singh’s date of birth on its records as 10 May 1950 ahead of the Supreme Court hearing and and not a year later as contended by him. In its letter, the defence ministry had asked the AG branch to correct its records and have 10 May 1950 as army chief’s date of birth and sought a compliance report in this regard at the earliest possible.[caption id=“attachment_198205” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“General VK Singh. PTI”] [/caption] Official sources said today that it has not received any response from the AG’s branch in this connection. Curiously, the defence ministry’s letter to the AG branch, the official record keeper of date of birth, carried no date and the sources said that the ministry’s directive was conveyed to the AG branch on 23 January, a week after General Singh had filed his writ in the Supreme Court. The ministry’s undated letter rejected the AG branch’s apprehension that the 21 July 2011 office memorandum of the ministry directing the correction of army chief’s age as 10 May 1950 “is not legally infirm and hence any apprehension expressed in this behalf has no basis”. “In view of the above, the contents of this Ministry’s OM dated 21st July, 2011 may please be noted for guidance and strict compliance without any further loss of further time and a compliance report be sent to this Ministry at the earliest,” the ministry letter said. The ministry letter recalled that the Statutory Complaint filed by General Singh seeking withdrawal of the 21 July 2011 directive of the ministry has been disposed off by the ministry on 30 December 2011. The ministry said the redressal sought by the General has not been granted and that his “officially-recognised” date of birth will continue to remain 10 May 1950 and there are no grounds for interfering with the defence ministry directive of July 2011. The ministry also rejected the contention that no inquiry had been conducted by the Army Headquarters nor had AG’s branch been co-opted or kept informed about it. It maintained that as early as January 2008 General Singh was informed about the date of birth after a “detailed examination in consultation with AG’s branch”. The sources said that its letter received by the AG’s branch on 23 January was not a fresh directive and was written in response to an advise sought by the branch in August. They said the AG branch had raised certain issues with the ministry over changing its records after it issued an order on 21 July. The sources said the ministry had not communicated any advice to the AG branch in August last year since at that time a statutory complaint was filed by General Singh. PTI