Vice Admiral Verma Moves Armed Forces Tribunal for Being ‘Overlooked’ as Navy Chief
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
New Delhi: Vice Admiral Vimal Verma, the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, has moved the Armed Forces Tribunal seeking to know “why he was overlooked as the next Navy chief despite being the senior-most in the line of command,” official sources quoted by PTI said on Monday.
According to sources, Verma’s petition is likely to be taken up on Tuesday. His case will be fought by his daughter, Rhea Verma, 28, a Delhi-based lawyer who is an alumnus of India Law Society’s Law College in Pune, said a report by Hindustan Times.
Verma was senior to Singh and was among the contenders for post of Navy chief, including Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, FOC-in-C of Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar and FOC-in-C of Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, the source PTI.
Last month, the government named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next chief of the naval staff, succeeding Admiral Sunil Lanba who retires on May 30.
The government said it made the selection following a merit-based approach and did not go with the tradition of appointing the senior-most eligible officer.
It may be recalled that in 2016, too, the National Democratic Alliance government did not follow the long-held tradition of going by the seniority while appointing the Army Chief.
The previous United Progressive Alliance government, too, did not follow seniority in 2014 when Admiral Robin Dhowan superseded a senior officer to become the Navy Chief, sources said.
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