"Use Your Energy To...": Supreme Court Rejects Plea To Sack VK Singh

The Supreme Court has dismissed a PIL (public interest litigation) seeking to remove Union Minister VK Singh over alleged anti-Army statements he had made on February 7; the statements were made with reference to the border stand-off with China along the LAC.

The court dismissed the PIL saying it was for the Prime Minister to remove a minister, and asked the petitioner to focus on helping the country rather than file such petitions.

The petitioner - activist Chandrasekaran Ramasamy had argued that the comments by VK Singh - a retired four-star General in the Indian Army - were in breach of his oath as a minister and had weakened India's global authority, as well as offering China a justification for its transgressions.

Mr Ramasamy had said the government did not spare ordinary citizens for such comments, and said no special treatment should be afforded to Mr Singh either.

The court, however, was not convinced.

"If the minister gives a statement... you file a PIL to remove him? It appears you (the petitioner) are a scientist. Use your energy to help the country," Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said.

"If the minister is not good it is for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to decide, not us," he added.

In February, Mr Singh made certain remarks while answering a question on the China border row.

"With China our border has never been demarcated. Over a period of time, there have been transgressions where China says, 'this is my perception of the LAC'," Mr Singh had told reporters.

The contentious bit was: "... none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed as per our perception. We don't announce it.. but let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times."

China pounced on the statement to declare that "India's transgressions" were the root cause of tensions at the Line of Actual Control, or LAC, which is the de-facto border between the countries.

The border row erupted in June last year after 20 Indian soldiers died for their country in a clash with Chinese troops at Galwan Valley.

Last week India and China agreed to hold the next round of military talks - to continue defusing of tensions - at an early date to achieve the objective of complete disengagement in remaining friction points amid fresh sparring over the prolonged standoff.

The last round of talks took place against renewed sparring over the standoff and deadlock over disengagement after withdrawal of troop from the north and south banks of Pangong Lake in February.