Clean chit to Judge Advocate General of Army

New Delhi, Aug 9 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today dismissed a petition challenging the Law degree of Major General Neelendra Kumar, the Judge Advocate General(JAG) in the Army headquartes stating that no discrepancy was found in his degree.

Justices Vikramajeet Sen and S L Bhayana said, ''We have verified all the facts regarding the college and attendance of the advocate general and there seems to be no irregularity in the degree he obtained.'' The court observed, ''We see no reason why the JAG would have not attended the classes as the Law college was in Lucknow and he was posted in Lucknow at the relevant time.

One Neterapal Singh, dismissed from the Army had filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the Law degree of the JAG.

Counsel for the JAG, Rekha Palli told the court that her client had attended the classes at the Law college in Lucknow which were held in the evening from 1600-2000 hours.

She said her client did his first year in June 1979, second year in June 1980 and the third year was completed after a gap of one year in September 1982. Had there been any chance of missing the classes he would have completed his law degree in the scheduled time without the gap of one year, she added.

Ms Palli said the petitioner who has challenged the degree of JAG, was serving as a clerk with the Jat regiment. He was court martialled and dismissed from the Army on the charges of misappropriation of funds by forging official documents.

Aggreived by the order he had challenged the law degree of the JAG questioning his dismissal by someone whose law degree itself was not maintainable, the lawyer added.

The court in its order has held that the Law degree is valid and is supported by all the papers from the college under Lucknow University and the Bar Council of India.

UNI