Plea by Vice-Admiral Verma challenging appointment of next Navy chief rejected

New Delhi, May 19: The petition filed by vide-admiral Bimal Verma challenging his supersession for the post of Navy chief has been rejected by the Defence Ministry.

The matter will now come up before the Armed Forces Tribunal for hearing on Monday. The tribunal had initially allowed the defence ministry to take a call before it would hear the petition.

Verma had said that the government had in an arbitrary manner ignored the recommendation of the Chief of Naval Staff and appointed Junior Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the next Navy chief.

The Defence Ministry in its order said that the appointment was made after considering all the norms laid down and asserted that seniority cannot be the only criteria for the selection.

A robust selection procedure was followed for selecting the Navy chief and the petitioner was found to be unsuitable for the post.