No notice to Centre, High Court tells Tejinder to approach Army

Following the defence ministry's submission disassociating itself from an Army release in March accusing Lt Gen. (retd) Tejinder Singh of bribery and spreading misinformation, the Delhi High Court today declined to issue notices to the central government, Army Chief Gen. V K Singh and four other top officials.

The court described the issual of the release as a "service matter" of the Army, and said Tejinder Singh may file a representation with the Army's disciplinary authority for action as laid down by law.

Justice Mukta Gupta noted that the defence ministry could not be directed to withdraw the press release since the ministry had clearly stated that the release "was not issued by them or after their approval".

"In view of the fact that the press release was not issued by the Union of India, it cannot be directed to immediately disown or publicly withdraw this release. The contention of the petitioner is that Respondents 2 to 6 (Army Chief and four others) exceeded their jurisdiction and defamed him by issuing the release and hence disciplinary action should be taken against them. It may be noted that disciplinary action is part and parcel of the disciplinary authority. In case a representation is made by the petitioner, concerned authority can take disciplinary action in accordance with the law," Justice Gupta said while disposing of the petition.

While dictating the order, the court refused to accept the argument by Tejinder Singh's lawyer Anil K Aggarwal that the competent authority to take action against the Army Chief could only be the defence ministry. The March 5-6 release had alleged that reports of unauthorised surveillance of phones of defence ministry officials were "put out" in the media by Tejinder Singh, and accused him of offering bribes on behalf of Tatra and Vectra Ltd, which supply trucks to defence PSU BEML.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Failed IAS aspirant took parents to Delhi for imaginary interview

Law ministry does U-turn, agrees to conciliation in Vodafone tax case

After SC raps CBI, govt sets up GoM

Modi govt does rethink on death penalty for Kodnani