NEW DELHI: A day after losing his age war in the Supreme Court, the woes of Army Chief General V K Singh are far from over.
A case by his junior officer alleging him of spoiling his Annual Confidential Report (ACR) and blocking his promotion will come up for hearing on February 14 at Chandigarh branch of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), even as his fellow soldiers and well-wishers are prodding him to resign.
Major General Tejinder Singh Handa has moved the AFT against the Army Chief for victimising him as he did not acceded to the General’s demand of changing his date of birth as a Deputy Military Secretary (MS) in December 2006. General Singh was then posted as the General-Officer-in-Commanding (GoC) of Ambala-based 2 Corps and Handa was a Brigadier.
Later, Singh went on to become the Army Commander of the Calcutta-based
Eastern Army Command when Handa was the GoC of 57 Moutain Division under the former’s command. Claiming himself to be ‘a victim of the controversy over his age, Handa has been alleging that in Singh’s assessment of his performance from July 2, 2007, to June 30, 2008, has been biased.
Incidentally, much before the controversy broke out in public, Maj Gen Handa had filed a statutory complaint on August 27, 2010, blaming the General for spoiling his ACRs for not complying with the demands of changing Singh’s date of birth to serve his advantage.
Maj Gen Handa has missed out from taking on his next rank of Lieutenant General by one point.
The Army Chief in a reply to the AFT’s notice has denied these allegations and further arguments will be carried on during the February 14 hearing.