Defence Ministry forms panel for selecting next army chief

NEW DELHI: With the Supreme Court holding that 1950 should be treated as Gen V K Singh's date of birth, all eyes are now on who his successor would be for which the Defence Ministry has already formed a panel.

The ministry panel includes the senior-most Lieutenant Generals for selecting the next army chief, sources said here. The three senior-most officers are Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Bikram Singh, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen K T Parnaik and present Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Shri Krishna Singh.

Traditionally, the senior-most officer from the panel is appointed as the army chief. In this case, Lt Gen Bikram Singh is the senior-most and most-likely to be appointed for the top post. Of the remaining two officers, Lt Gen Parnaik is senior to Lt Gen Shri Krishna.

Sources said in case Gen Singh decides to resign before the end of his tenure on May 31, the government is ready with its contingency plans. They said in case Gen Singh resigns in the next few days, Western Army Commander Lt Gen Shankar Rajan Ghosh can also be considered for the appointment.

Lt Gen Ghosh is the seniormost officer after the Gen Singh in the Army.

The apex today court told Gen Singh that he cannot resile on his commitment that he would abide by the government decision to treat his date of birth as May 10, 1950 and rejected the contention of "prejudice" and "perversity".