Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 11

Vice Admiral Bimal Verma today filed a ‘statutory complaint’ with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) contesting the appointment of Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the next Chief of the Indian Navy.

The application has been filed, sources confirmed today. The application has to be responded to within a specified time period. This is an “internal remedy” to address any grievance.

This comes after the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), on Tuesday, asked Vice Admiral Verma to explore all remedies before filing a plea before the AFT. He had withdrawn his plea from the AFT and the ‘statutory complaint’ has been filed with MoD.

Admiral Verma is the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command. He has asked 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 May 31.