Vice Adm Verma moves tribunal after being overlooked for Navy Chief's post

Vice Admiral Bimal Verma on Monday moved the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) questioning why he was overlooked as the next Navy chief despite being the senior-most in the line of command, official sources said Monday.

In a petition to the AFT here, Verma, Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, sought to know why the government ignored his seniority and appoint Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the next Navy chief.

His petition is likely to be taken up Tuesday.

The government last month named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next chief of the naval staff, succeeding Admiral Sunil Lanba who retires on May 30.

The government made the selection following a merit-based approach and did not go with the tradition of appointing the senior-most eligible officer to the post.

Vice Admiral Verma is senior to Singh and was among the contenders for the top post.

While appointing the Army Chief in 2016, the government did not follow the long-held tradition of going by the seniority. Rawat was appointed Army Chief superseding then Eastern Command Chief Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi and Southern Command Chief PM Hariz.

Besides Verma, the other contenders for the Navy Chief post included 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.

Vice Admiral Singh, who is at present serving as the Flag Officer Commanding in Chief (FOC-in-C) of the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, will be the first helicopter pilot to become Chief of Naval Staff.