SC dismisses PIL on Army Chief’s age

New Delhi, January 20
The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL on the controversy over the age of Army chief Gen VK Singh, holding that there was no provision in law, Constitution or earlier SC verdicts to entertain such petitions pertaining to service matters.
A three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia also pointed out that since Gen Singh himself had approached the SC through a separate petition there was no need for the court to entertain the PIL.
“We will be setting a wrong precedent if we admit the PIL” which had pleaded for declaring Gen Singh’s date of birth (DoB) as May 10, 1951 and not May 10, 1950 as maintained by the Defence Ministry, the Bench observed.
“Please show us the judgments, the relevant law or the Constitutional provision under which the PIL is maintainable. We cannot make a departure from law,” the Bench, which included Justices AK Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar, told senior counsel Bhim Singh and Manohar Singh Bakshi, who argued for the PIL petitioner, the Grenadiers Association (Rohtak Chapter).

Bhim Singh said the government was bound to accept the DoB of Gen Singh as found on his school leaving certificate and had no power to change it. If this trend was allowed, it would create chaos in governance as millions of people were working in the armed forces and other state departments. The Bench, however, did not agree with the contentions. Dismissing the PIL, the SC made it clear that this would in no way have any bearing on Gen Singh’s petition. Nevertheless, the Bench did not specify the date on which the Army chief’s plea would be listed for hearing.

The Bench also took exception to the PIL mentioning that four former CJIs had expressed the opinion that the school leaving certificate was the decisive document for ascertaining the age. It directed the court’s Registry not to accept any petition containing any opinions in future.