Lt Gen-rank officer asked to retire before superannuation

New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI) The Indian Army has "forced" aLieutenant General-rank officer to retire from service on ashort 24-hour notice, four months before his scheduled date ofsuperannuation.

Lt Gen J K Srivastava, Director General (DG), Remountand Veterinary Corps (RVC) was served the retirement notice onthe evening of February 22, when he had gone to Gujarat on atemporary duty.

Seeking redressal against the "arbitrary" move by thearmy, the officer has approached the Armed Forces Tribunal(AFT) against the order.

"He was asked to come back to Delhi and receive hisretirement order from next day on February 23. We have filed apetition before the Armed Forces Tribunal, which has asked thearmy to file its report within a week," Srivastava''s counselBrigadier A K Srivastava told PTI here.

The officer was supposed to retire from the army onJune 30 this year after completing 39 years of service at theage of 61, the counsel added.

"He was promoted to the rank of DG in February 2009.

In August 2009, the Military Secretary (MS) branch confirmedhis retirement at the age of 61. In August 2010, he got hisretirement orders saying that he will go on superannuation onJune 31 2011," he said.

Lt Gen Srivastava filed the petition in Tribunal onFebruary 23, where the the two-member Bench of Justice S SKulshreshtha and Lt Gen Z U Shah admitted the petition andasked army to file its reply within a week.

"But at 1700 hours on February 23, Lt Gen Srivastavawas handed over the retirement orders with immediate effect,"said Brig Srivastava.