The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition challenging the appointment of Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the next Army chief.
The court said that after carefully going through the averments made in the petition and the material placed before it, it does not find anything material to entertain the petition.
The court had gone through the documents submitted before it by the Centre regarding the appointment of Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the Army Chief-designate.
The PIL, filed by petitioners including former Naval Chief Admiral L. Ramdas, had challenged the appointment of Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the next Army Chief alleging his involvement in a fake encounter in 2001 in Kashmir.
The petitioners also alleged that Lt Gen Bikram Singh did not take action against certain officers accused of sexual harassment when he was leading a peacekeeping force in Congo. The petitioners warned that these charges should not be ignored as they are serious in nature, adding that Lt Gen Bikram Singh was promoted not entirely on grounds of merit.
The court sought to know whether the charges against Lt Gen Bikram Singh were forwarded to the Cabinet Committee on Appointments when the green signal was given for him to succeed Gen V.K. Singh as the next Army Chief when the latter retires on May 31.
The Government had claimed that the PIL was filed with malafide intention and with an intention to rake up the controversy of the Army Chief's age once again.
It maintained that Lt Gen Bikram Singh's appointment was done in a transparent manner, adding that there was a communal angle to the case.
The apex court restrained the petitioners from coming up with “bald” allegations against Lt Gen Bikram Singh.
The court, while agreeing to hear the PIL against Lt Gen Bikram Singh's appointment as the Army Chief-designate, however, said it will not re-consider the age controversy of the Army Chief Gen V K Singh.
The court had earlier declined to conduct the proceedings in the matter ‘in-camera’ (in private).