Gen. Singh dropped his petition after the Supreme Court indicated it was not in favor of entertaining his petition, asking for all his records to show his date of birth as May 12, 1951 and not May 10, 1950.

Documents in the army reflect both years. With today's developments, Gen. Singh is obliged to retire at the end of May. But there are reports that he may quit soon.

The two-judge bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice H.L. Gokhale on Friday upheld the government decision on his age while hearing Gen. Singh's petition and directed him to accept May 10, 1950, entered in his Union Public Service Commission for admission to the National Defense Academy, as his date of birth for service matters.

The judges said they found "no error or prejudice" in the government's decision. They also underscored that in 2008, when he was up for a big promotion, the General accepted the government's decision to maintain 1950 as his year of birth.

"You accepted it. It is a matter of record. Then you became Army chief," they said.   The top court told the army chief that he had to abide by his commitment and honor his letters of 2008 and 2009 accepting the date of birth as May 10, 1950, and he cannot resile on it now, forcing Gen. Singh to withdraw his petition.

The petition was withdrawn after Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati told the court that the government had never questioned the bonafide or integrity of Gen. Singh and contesting the petition did not reflect any lack of confidence in the army chief.

Gen. Singh's counsel U.U. Lalit told the court after Vahanvati's statement that his client did not wish to press the matter any further in the court.

The court also asked the army chief to give an undertaking that he would accept his date of birth as May 10, 1950 within the next 48 hours.

With the Supreme Court disposing off the case, Gen. Singh would complete his tenure on May 31, 2012 and retire on the same date, brining to an end a raging controversy.

Earlier, the court had given Gen. Singh an option to withdraw his petition or else an order would be passed on it while making it clear that that no prejudice was done to Gen. Singh and the government decision on his date of birth will continue to be May 10, 1950.