Vice Admiral’s plea rejected by govt
NEW DELHI: The defence ministry has rejected a statutory compliant filed by Vice Admiral Bimal Verma challenging the appointment of his junior Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the next navy chief, two officials familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
Rejecting his April 10 complaint, the ministry has said while seniority plays an important role in the appointment of service chiefs, it is not the sole determining factor, said one of the officials cited above.
There have been instances of seniority being ignored in the past as well.
The second official said Verma’s complaint was carefully examined and was found to be devoid of merit. He said the government is satisfied that the selection process was fair and transparent.
The ministry held that no unsubstantiated, frivolous, extraneous or irrelevant considerations have any bearing on appointment of the next Navy Chief, the officials were quotes as saying by news agency PTI.
Verma, who heads the Andaman and Nicobar Command in Port Blair, would have been the senior-most officer in the navy on May 31 when Admiral Sunil Lanba retires. The government, however, decided against appointing him the next navy chief and opted for Singh.
Singh currently heads the Visakhapatnam-based Eastern Naval Command.
A petition filed by Verma challenging his supersession will come up for hearing before the principal bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal on Monday. The tribunal had asked the ministry to decided Verma’s complaint by May 15.
Verma had moved the tribunal on April 25 for the second time after the government named Admiral Singh as the next navy chief in March.
In his petition, Verma had wondered why he was overlooked for the top post despite being the senior-most in the line of command, terming as “wrongful” the government’s decision to appoint Singh to the post.
“But the same largely remained within the confines of ECI after demission of office unless appearing much later in a book written by the concerned ECS/CECS.”
Arora added: “I have personally never shied away from a public debate whenever required but there is a time for everything. There was a reason. I said few days back in another leading daily that eloquence of silence is always difficult but far more desirable which is far to see the election process through instead of creating ill-timed controversies.”
He expressed displeasure at the reports of differences within the ECI “There has been an unsavoury and avoidable controversy reported in sections of media today about the internal functioning of Election Commission of India in respect of handing Mode Code of Conduct. This has come at a time when all the CEOS throughout the country and their teams are geared for Seventh and last Phase of polling on Sunday tomorrow, followed by the gigantic task of counting on May 23.” CEO is short for chief electoral officer. Lavasa has insisted on putting on record his dissent to the ECI’S decision to give a clean chit to Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah over alleged violations of the MCC while campaigning for the 17th general election, which concludes on Sunday after seven phases of polling.