Lt Gen Bikram Singh is to be India's next Army Chief

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) Ending suspense, the Indian Government today announced the appointment of Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the country's next Army Chief succeeding Gen V K Singh, who retires on May 31, 2012. 59-year-old Lt Gen Singh, the Eastern Army Commander, will head the 1.3-million strong force and have a tenure of just over two years till August 2014. A service chief in India has a tenure of three years or till the retirement age of 62 whichever is earlier. "Lt Gen Singh has been designated as the next Chief of Army Staff, in the rank of General, with effect from the afternoon of 31 May 2012," Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said here. "He will succeed the present COAS Gen V K Singh, who retires from the service on May 31," he added. Lt Gen Bikram Singh was the seniormost among the present Army Commanders but his appointment as the Chief of Army Staff had got caught in a suspense as Gen V K Singh was fighting out his date of birth battle that could have given him a tenure till March 2013 end. Gen V K Singh, who had two dates of birth in his official records, had dragged the government to the Supreme Court, contending that he was born on May 10, 1951 and not a year earlier. However, the apex Indian court refused to accept his contention, holding that he had taken promotions on the basis of May 10,1950 as his date of birth and now could not "resile" on his commitment accepting that date. Lt Gen Bikram Singh was commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry Regiment on 31 March 1972. Among the various positions held by him, he has commanded Srinagar-based 15 Corps during militancy and has served as Deputy Force Commander of a multi-nation UN Peace Keeping Mission in Congo and as UN Observer in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the early 90s. Lt Gen Bikram Singh has passed out with distinction from the Defence Services Staff College, the Army War College and the US Army War College, Pennsylvania. He is married to Surjeet Kaur and the couple have two sons. PTI