THE BIRTHDAY saga of General Vijay Kumar Singh, Chief of the Army Staff, is not as simple as it looks on the surface. Having had a look at the story and supporting documents from beginning to end, one is bound to say that maintenance of service records of an officer by two important branches of Army Headquarters is faulty. Let it be done by one branch in future and customarily it should be the Adjutant General's branch. As of now, General VK Singh’s service records maintained by the Military Secretary’s branch shows the year of birth as 1950 whereas the records maintained by the Adjutant General’s branch shows it as 1951. The High School certificate that mentions the final date of birth gives it as 1951. All the documentation done, thereafter sticks to 1951 uniformly as the authentic year of birth of the General.

Surprisingly it was not challenged by the individual officer at any stage of service nor was it done by army headquarters. The Govt of India does not seem to have a strong grip on the case. They do not have a firm grip and do not understand nuances of the service traditions and the etiquette of military hierarchy. The civilian babus are out of sync and the case stands mixed up. What will the Ministry of Defence say to the Supreme Court on 3 Feb 2012, when the case is likely to come up for hearing, no one knows for sure.

Another thing comes to the mind that wasn't it silly on the part of the Ministry of Defence to have ordered the AG’s branch directly to change the date of birth of the Chief to 1950 so that it conforms to the date of birth being maintained by the MS branch, namely 1951. The MoD acted wrongly in not following the chain of command. In the Army, it is considered sacrilege to short circuit the chain of command. It is really a bad show that the order of the Ministry has not yet been carried out by the Adjutant General’s branch of Army Headquarters.

There are some grey areas in the case. As pointed out by defence minister, it is the Army that is to blame for the age mess. In other words, the previous two chiefs who handled the application of change of date of birth of General VK Singh are now in for the blame. The legal luminaries may wish to delve deep into the legal case to discover the ulterior motive of the then army chiefs in not allowing General VK Singh to amend his date of birth as per the High School certificate. Did some senior officer make a plan to ensure that after Gen VK Singh superannuates in 2012, their crony steps in to be at the helm of affairs of the Indian Army.

The Supreme Court of India is likely to hear the case de novo on 3 Feb 2012 and what their Lordships say will carry weight. The Supreme Court is supreme in the matter as it is the constitutional authority to adjudicate and interpret the law and regulations concerning all matters. Let us take a look at the case again after the Supreme Court has spoken.