Army chief meets Pranab Mukherjee ahead of Supreme Court date

New Delhi: Army chief General VK Singh met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday evening, provoking murmurs that a compromise was in the offing between the General and the government. Sources told NDTV that while both sides were keen to find a solution to the impasse, no breakthrough was made.

Interestingly, General Singh did not drive up in his official Army vehicle.

The Supreme Court will today hear General Singh's petition against the government. The Army chief wants the court to decide on his age. He says he was born in 1951, the Army says that the records it must follow list his age as 1950.

He has become the first serving Army chief to take the government to court. A truce would save both the military and the government more public embarrassment. A solution, sources say, may emerge with the government accepting on record that the General has not misrepresented his age. In exchange, he may withdraw his case.

The problem lies in the fact that documents with the army list both 1950 and1 951 as his date of birth.  Earlier this week, the Ministry of Defence ordered the army's record-keeper, the Adjutant General, to amend all records to uniformly show 1950 for the General's birth date.  The Ministry of Defence says that several big promotions for General Singh, including his elevation to Army Chief, used 1950 in the calculations to establish his seniority.

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The General says he has tried on different occasions to have his records corrected.  He has said in his petition that his tenure can only be decided by the government.  Though he does not explicitly refer to his term, if 1951 were accepted as his year of birth, he would be eligible for another year in office.