Admiral Karambir Singh on Friday took charge as the 24th Navy chief replacing incumbent Sunil Lanba.

“Admiral Karambir Singh PVSM AVSM ADC assumes charge as the 24th Chief of the Naval Staff,” the Navy spokesperson tweeted.

Admiral Lanba passed on the baton to Admiral Singh at a ceremony in the South Block on Friday.

Speaking to media following the ceremony, the new Navy chief said, “My predecessors made sure that Navy has a solid foundation and has reached new heights. It will be my endeavour to continue with their efforts and provide the nation with a Navy that is strong, credible and ready to meet security challenge in maritime domain.”

Born on 3 November 1959, Admiral Singh was commissioned on 1 July, 1980 into the executive branch of the Indian Navy. During his long and distinguished service spanning nearly 39 years, he has served in a variety of Command, Staff and Instructional appointments.

Admiral Singh’s Sea Command includes Guided Missile Destroyers INS Rana and INS Delhi. He also served as Fleet Operations Officer of the Western Fleet and was Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra and Gujarat area.

Before taking over as FOC-in-C Eastern Naval Command in October 2017, he was Director General Project Seabird, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff and Vice Chief of the Naval Staff.

Admiral Karambir Singh is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. He has been decorated with the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM).

Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Bimal Verma had objected to Singh being named for the top post.

Verma had filed a statutory complaint to the Ministry after the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) asked him to approach the government with his grievance before taking the legal recourse.

Verma, who heads the Andaman and Nicobar tri-service command, was overlooked for the Navy chief’s post as the government in March, named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the successor of Admiral Sunil Lanba.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD), however, had turned down Verma’s plea saying that seniority was not the only criteria for top appointments in the armed forces and that deep selection has been done several times in the past.

While Vice Admiral Verma was commissioned into the Navy in 1979, Vice Admiral Singh – a helicopter pilot – was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1980.

This was the second time in the last five years that the government overlook seniority in favour of merit.