According to Dastane’s petition, Dalbir Singh had been placed under a discipline and vigilance ban by then Army chief VK Singh in 2012.
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Ringing alarm bells before Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, senior Army officers heading various formations of the Nagrota-based White Knight Corps on Wednesday raised the issue of growing “radicalisation” of youth belonging to hilly districts of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and frontier districts of Rajouri and Poonch at a high-level security review meeting in Jammu. This is the first time a serving army chief has publicly attacked one of his predecessors.
He has underlined it is now “revealed clearly that the imposition of DV ban and issue of show cause notice to me by the then COAS was illegal and premeditated”. He also accused the former army chief of trying to stall his promotion “with mysterious design, malafide intent and to arbitrarily punish” him for “extraneous reasons”.
The 3 Corps Commander, who could have taken charge of the army in 2014, was put under a Discipline and Vigilance Ban by then Army General V K Singh on charges of “abdicating responsibility” in handling an intelligence and surveillance unit under his command after a failed operation in Assam.
Earlier in the 2012, VK Singh stirred a controversy when he moved the Supreme Court challenging government’s orders which had determined his date of birth to be May 10, 1950 and not May 10, 1951, which would have given him an extra ten months in office. Dalbir Singh was responding to a petition in the Supreme Court that alleged he was made Army Commander not on merit, but as a result of favouritism. Soon after Dalbir was appointed as the commander of the eastern command. “The show cause notice issued, beside suffering from vagueness, was premeditated and also against the principles of natural justice”, his affidavit states.
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The Defence Ministry, meanwhile, has told court that the DV ban against Dalbir Singh was, indeed, illegal, reported Express.
