Post of Army Chief of 1.2 billion people is sacrosanct; there can be no trivialization on plea of verifying facts

The Supreme Court has dismissed the public interest litigation about the age row of Army Chief General V.K.Singh saying the plea is not maintainable and taking it up would create an unnecessary precedent.

The apex court has not mentioned anything about the merits of the issue, whether the date of birth of the General is May 10, 1950 as accepted by the government or May 10, 1951 as claimed by the General.

The petition filed by the General himself has not been taken up by the apex court as yet, and it has not been listed.

In the normal course, such petitions like the plea for determination of the age of an individual would be considered first by the lowest of the courts. The issue should be interesting to notice whether one can take out the Brahmastra first, that is approaching the apex court instantly without going through the lower courts.

Then the issue is one raised by the Army Chief and in view of the propensity for sensationalisation, one has to watch over the situation whether the apex court will take it up.

Defence Minister A.K.Antony has reacted for the first time about the issue saying let us wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court, the highest court of the country. The government was keeping maximum restraint and it does not want to sensationalise the issue.

That is definitely what should be done.

There are certain decorum with regard to handling such issues. Can a Cabinet Minister file a petition against the Prime Minister, still holding the post of the Cabinet Minister?

The post of the Chief of Army Staff of 1.2 billion people of the country is sacrosanct and there cannot be trivialization of matters, be it in the name of probing the veracity of the fact or otherwise.