Government on Monday filed a caveat in the supreme court against any ex-parte order on the petition of Army Chief Gen V K Singh challenging the decision over his date of birth.

An application was filed by the ministry of defence urging the apex court not to pass any order on Singh's petition without hearing it. The caveat as filed through counsel T A Khan.

Gen Singh had yesterday taken the unprecedented step of dragging the government to the supreme court on his age row saying it was an issue of his "honour and integrity".

He filed a writ petition in the apex court after exhausting all statutory options within the defence ministry which had recently rejected his contention that he was born in 1951 and not 1950.

The petition challenges the July 21, 2011 order of the defence ministry which fixed the date of birth as May 10, 1950 and the December 30,2011 decision by which his statutory complaint was rejected.

He has sought a direction for declaring May 10,1951 as the correct date of birth.

With Army Chief Gen V K Singh dragging the government to Supreme Court over his age issue, Defence Minister A K Antony today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the matter.

It was not clear as to what exactly transpired at the meeting, sources said.

The meeting came a day after Gen Singh filed a writ petition in the apex court challenging the Defence Ministry's rejection of his contention that his date of birth should be May 10,1951 and not May 10,1950 as fixed.

As per the government's decision, Gen Singh will retire on May 31 this year.

Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma, who was in Malaysia on a visit, was also called back in view of the development related to Army Chief's action.