Five documents show V K Singh's year of birth as 1950: AG

New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) At least five documents,
including one at the time of army chief General V K Singh's
commissioning, show his date of birth as May 10, 1950, the
Attorney General of India has told the Defence Ministry
following a row over his age.
While the records showed two sets of dates of birth, the
Ministry had decided to take May 10, 1950 as against the
general's claim that he was born a year later on May 10, 1951,
which, if recognised, would have given him an extra ten months
in office.
Defence Ministry documents accessed through RTI show that
as per a government note dated January 22, 1971, the batch of
Singh in the Indian Military Academy (IMA) completed its
training on June 6, 1970 and the list prepared showed "the
date of birth to be May 10, 1950".
In his opinion given to the Defence Ministry on army
chief's petition to change his date of birth to May 10 1951,
the Attorney General has said that, "At least five documents
are referred to which show the date of birth as 1950, two of
which have emanated from Gen V K Singh himself."
He further stated that in the army list of 1974-75, the
date of birth is showed to be May 10, 1950.
On Gen Singh's contention that May 10, 1950 date in his
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) form was filled up
wrongly by his school teacher, the Attorney General said that
this, "makes the matter more serious as it shows that the
application required to be filled in the candidate's own
handwriting was filled in by a teacher and not by Gen Singh."
The army chief has filed a Statutory Complaint with the
Defence Minister seeking a change in his date of birth after
the Ministry issued an order on July 21 to say that May 10,
1950 will be treated as his date of birth.