The Commander in Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command Vice Admiral Bimal Verma approached an armed forces tribunal seeking to know why he was overlooked as the next navy chief despite being the senior most in the line of command.
The government last month named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next chief of the naval staff, succeeding Admiral Sunil Lanba who retires on the 30th of May.
The government says it 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 job in the navy.
Reports claim that Vice Admiral Verma approached an armed forces tribunal bench in the national capital to know why the government ignored his seniority.
His petition may be taken up on Tuesday.
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.
Even while appointing the Army Chief in 2016, the government did not follow the long held tradition of going by the seniority.
Source : Various