Age controversy of Army Chief General V K Singh

General V K Singh presently the Chief of Army Staff is involved in a date of birth controversy. He himself has given his date of Birth as 10 May 1950 in his application for admission to the National Defence Academy (NDA). On the basis of the age recorded in the application to NDA the Military Secretary branch recorded his date of birth as 10-5-1950. The records in Adjutant General (AG) Branch of the Indian Army, which is the official record keeper of the army, show Singh's date of birth as 10 May 1951 on the basis of a certificate from the 14th Rajput Regiment's officer certifying that Vijay Kumar Singh (V K  Singh) was born on 10-5-1951 as per the service record of V K Singh's father who was in the military service at Khadki in Pune of Maharashtra as a Major at that time.According to V K Singh, he had repeatedly asked for the correction of the records. According to V K Singh, he made a mistake of D O B in the application submitted by him as 1950 and he wanted the same to be corrected to 1951. This would have availed 1 more year of service in the Military. The Military Secretary branch quoted rules against change if age mentioned in the application form.

General V K Sing approached the Minister of Defence in 2011 to get the date of birth changed to 1951 in the Military Secretary branch records. The Defense Minister preferred to rely on the D O B as 1950 instead of 1951. Thereafter the General appealed to the Minister to reconsider the decision on the age which was rejected by the Minister. The General went to the Supreme Court of India (S C) against the decision of the minister. The S C noted that there was no dispute on the actual date of birth but the matter was as how it was recorded. The S C has also noted that Mr V K Singh has accepted the 1950 date on 3 occasions and refused to intervene in the matter. On 10-2-2012 Mr Singh withdrew his petition filed in the court on the above finding s of the court. Incidentally this is the 1st time an Officer of that high rank went to Court in the Military establishment.It is really a shame that the General took advantage of the date of Birth of 1950 on 3 occasions during his career and at the fag end of the service he wants advantage under the other date of birth also.

The bribe issue raised by General V K Singh at this juncture gives an impression that he wanted to create trouble for not giving him the benefit of the age rectification. This almost looks like a virtual blackmail from a Person of such a high rank. It is a very sad state of affairs for the country. The General should have been sacked as per the leaders of JD (U), S P and RJD.  .