Top court dismisses PIL on Bikram Singh
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition by former Naval Chief L. Ramdas and some other prominent citizens questioning the selection of Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh, GOC-in-C of Eastern Command, as the next Army Chief after examining files related to the appointment placed before the Cabinet Committee of Appointment.
In a PIL, Mr Ramdas, another former Naval Chief Vishnu Bhagwat, former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswamy and others had challenged Gen. Singh’s appointment mainly on the grounds that the government had “overlooked” two serious allegations against him.
The first related to his alleged involvement in a “fake encounter” in Anantnag in Kashmir in 2001 and second about his “failure” to act against the “misconduct” of some Army personnel, which included the charges of rape and harassment of women during his 2008 assignment as deputy commander of the UN Peace Keeping Force in Congo. A bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and H.L. Gokhale, which summoned the files related to Gen. Singh’s selection, after examining the documents said that the CCA had gone into all these issues before taking a decision as the government had found no substance in the charges against him.
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Armed forces keen to resolve pay disparity
Age correspondent
New Delhi, April 23
The armed forces are keen on resolution of alleged pay anomalies vis-a-vis the civilian bureaucracy and have been taking up the matter with the government in the past few years, sources said on Monday. Sources said there were many anomalies that were detected— in salaries of armed forces personnel compared to the civilian bureaucracy — in 2008 after implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. The forces are keen to ensure pay parity with the bureaucracy. These alleged anomalies were then brought to the notice of the government.
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