Daily Pioneer:Wednesday, January 18, 2012.
As the Ministry of Defence and Army chief gear up for a battle royale in the Supreme Court over General VK Singh’s age, the latter is relying on a set of documents, which could pose serious challenge to the Ministry’s contention.
Refusing to accept his date of birth as May 10, 1951, General Singh has attached a Government response under RTI. In this official response on May 8. 2011, the MoD accepted the General’s year of birth as 1951. Before this response, a communication issued by the Adjutant General’s (AG) Branch on February 25, 2011 also supported Singh’s claim.
General Singh has revealed that by a blanket order of July 21, 2011, the MoD subsequently declared both the above communications as “null and void and non est”. Singh has challenged this order as “arbitrary” and “illegal.” The petition filed by Singh has questioned the action of the Centre to nullify its previous orders through an office memorandum.
The petition filed by advocate SS Jauhar and drafted by advocate Puneet Bali stated, “The order dated July 21, 2011 passed by the Ministry of Defence superseding and treating the order of February 25, 2011 (passed by AG Branch) as null and void and non est is without jurisdiction and has been passed in an illegal manner.”
All records related to Army officer’s age, tenure, and service details are kept with the AG Branch. For this reason too, the petition said, “Once the appropriate authority, i.e., the AG Branch based upon the legal advice of the legal advisory had recorded the date of birth as May 10, 1951… under what jurisdiction and authority of law the order dated July 21, 2011 was passed.”
On an RTI request by a Delhi-based Kamal Taori, the Information Headquarters of MoD on May 8, 2011 said, “Date of Birth as recorded in High School Certificate (Rajasthan Board) as well as in other documents of General VK Singh COAS is May 10, 1951.”
Pointing to the divergence of view existing between the AG Branch and Military Secretary (MS) Branch, the RTI response given by DDG RTI Brigadier AK Tyagi said, “There was an omission in one Branch and as advised by Legal Advisor (Defence and Ministry of Law and Justice) necessary correction is being made to correct this omission.”
But in U-turn, that triggered the age row, the MoD on July 21 said, “Both on facts and in substance, it could not be stated that there were no anomalies in the records and it was completely fallacious to state that there was ‘only one omission’ in one Branch.”
On the grounds that the AG Branch’s communication was not routed through the Defence Ministry and that the Legal Advisor (Defence) had no approval from the Law Ministry, the Centre overturned the February 25 and May 8 orders and established the official year of birth to be 1950.
AGE ROW
- In plea to SC, Gen Singh has attached a Govt' response under RTI which accepted the his year of birth as 1951
- However by a blanket order of July 21, 2011, MoD declared its RTI reply as ‘null and void’ and non est
- His advocate states, ‘The July 21, 2011 order of MoD superseding and treating the order of February 25, 2011 (passed by AG Branch) as null and void is without jurisdiction and has been passed in an illegal manner’
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