New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS) Indian Army chief General V.K. Singh met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Thursday, a day before the Supreme Court is likely to take up the age row case.
The details of the meeting were not known immediately, but sources said it took place at Mukherjee’s South Block office late in the evening.
The significant meeting comes amid the raging row over the general’s year of birth that has pitted the army chief against the government.
The army chief moved the Supreme Court after the defence ministry in December rejected his statutory complaint, requesting a change of his year of birth in official records to 1951 from 1950.
The controversy stems from two sets of records with the Adjutant General’s and Military Secretary’s branches of the Indian Army.
Singh, citing birth records, says he was born in 1951 and was not due to retire until March 2013.
But records at the defence ministry show he was born in 1950, which means that Singh, who became army chief in March 2010, is due to step down in May this year.
The defence ministry last week wrote to the adjutant general, military secretary and the comptroller general of defence accounts that Singh’s officially recognised date of birth will remain as May 10, 1950 and all records should be reconciled accordingly.
