VK Singh Imposed an Illegal Ban to Stall My Promotion: Army Chief

In 2012, General VK Singh had imposed a DV ban on the current Army Chief Dalbir Singh.

Army Chief Dalbir Singh pays homage to martyrs at the Kargil war memorial. (Photo: IANS)

Chief of Army Staff Dalbir Singh has accused Union Minister VK Singh of deliberately stalling his promotion by imposing an “illegal ban” under “false, baseless and imaginary allegations” in 2012.

In the first instance of a serving officer attacking his predecessor, Dalbir made these allegations in an affidavit to the Supreme Court. He alleged that VK Singh personally targeted him in order to “deny” him promotion to appointment of army commander.

Between April and May 2012, VK Singh had issued a discipline and vigilance (DV) ban on Dalbir for alleged “failure of command and control” in an earlier operation in Jorhat in 2011. Dalbir deemed the ban “illegal, false and baseless.”

Directions for initiating administrative action against me … smacks of a motivated, biased, arbitrary and malicious intent to punish me which the then chief of army staff executed apparently as planned by him.

Dalbir Singh’s affidavit

Dalbir in his affidavit added that the government and the defence ministry conceded the “gross injustice”.

According to Dalbir, in an earlier affidavit, the ministry said of the DV ban imposed on Dalbir:

The entire exercise was premeditated and as per records, the directions issued in this regard, including imposition of the DV ban, were found to be illegal.

The ban was later lifted in June that year by VK Singh’s successor General Bikram Singh, who took over on 31 May 2012. Soon after Dalbir was appointed as the commander of the eastern command.

Dalbir’s affidavit was filed in response to a petition by Lt Gen (Retd) Ravi Dastane who in turn alleged favouritism in Dalbir’s selection as Army Commander, making him the natural successor to General Bikram Singh.

In the past VK Singh has courted controversy several times. He created an uproar when he moved the apex court to change his date of birth in army records, doing which would allow him more time in his rank.

His request was however rejected by the court, saying that he had signed an undertaking to the government to comply with his 10 May 1950 birth date.

(With inputs from The Indian Express and Hindustan Times)

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Members of the opposition also responded to the news.