In 2012, an unseemly controversy had erupted over the age of the then Indian Army chief, General V.K. Singh, with the Supreme Court having to finally settle the matter by refusing to let him reduce this by a year so that his tenure could continue till May 2013 instead of ending in May 2012.

The issue has now re-emerged with an army officer who was charged with furnishing the relevant documents on the issue admitting -- and justifying -- that he had held back information as this "might have further complicated the relationship" between the then army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, and Lt. Gen. Singh, who at that time headed the Kolkata-based Eastern Command.