23 April 2012 Last updated at 09:20 ET

Challenge to next India army chief Bikram Singh rejected

Lt-Gen Bikram Singh is due to take over as army chief at the end of May

India's Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the appointment of Lt-Gen Bikram Singh as the next army chief.

The court said it saw no reason to intervene in the matter.

The appointment was challenged by a group of retired armed forces officials and bureaucrats who alleged that Lt-Gen Singh was involved in a staged killing in 2001.

Lt-Gen Singh is due to take over as army chief on 31 May. He denies the allegation.

On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the government for the file pertaining to the appointment of Lt-Gen Singh as the next army chief, Press Trust of India reported.

After going through the file, the court said that the government had looked into the allegations against Lt-Gen Singh before clearing his name as army chief, the agency said.

The petitioners included former Indian navy chief Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas and former election chief N Gopalaswamy.

They alleged that in March 2001, 60-year-old Abdullah Bhat was killed in Indian-administered Kashmir in a so-called fake encounter - where someone is shot dead in an allegedly staged gun battle - led by Lt-Gen Singh who was then a brigadier.

Lt-Gen Singh sustained injuries in the encounter and was given a gallantry medal. A colonel and a soldier were also killed in the clash.

The army said the dead man was a militant, a charge his family denied.

The petition also alleged that Lt-Gen Singh failed to take action against officers who were involved in sexual harassment and rape while posted in Congo in 2008 as part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

The Indian army has recently been involved in a series of controversies.

The outgoing chief Gen VK Singh has been involved in a row with the government over his retirement age and earlier this year, he took the government to the Supreme Court over the issue.

Last month, he said a defence equipment lobbyist had offered him a bribe of $2.7m (£1.7m) to approve the purchase of 600 "sub-standard" vehicles.

He then wrote a letter to the prime minister complaining that much of India's defence equipment was "obsolete" and the forces were "woefully short" of weapon. The letter caused uproar in parliament when leaked.