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Lt. Gen. Suhag, 59, a Gurkha officer who had participated in the 1987 Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) operation in Sri Lanka, is currently the vice-chief of the 1.3 million strong force.

He will have tenure of 30 months as the 26th Chief of Army Staff.

Lt. Gen. Suhag was made the vice-chief of Army Staff in December last year. Earlier, he had also taken over as the Eastern Army Commander on June 16, 2012.

His appointment as army chief in May this year by the erstwhile United Progressive Allaince (UPA) government had kicked up a row with a section of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), then in the Opposition, and retired army chief Gen VK Singh raising a protest.

The controversy triggered by discipline and vigilance ban imposed on him by the then army chief Gen VK Singh in connection with an intelligence operation in Assam earlier. The ban on Lt. Gen. Suhag, the then 2 Corps Commander, was lifted soon after Gen Bikram Singh took over in May, 2012.

Lt. Gen. Suhag was a Company Commander in Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka in 1987. he had also commanded 53 Infantry Brigade engaged in counter insurgency operations in the Kashmir Valley from July, 2003 to March, 2005.

An alumnus of Sainik School, Chittorgarh, he joined National Defence Academy in 1970 and was commissioned into 4/5 GR (FF) in June 1974.

The General Officer has attended various career courses in India and abroad which include LDMC at CDM, Secunderabad in 1997-98, NDC Course at New Delhi in 2006, Executive Course in USA in 2005 and Senior Mission Leaders Course (UN) in Kenya in 2007.

He holds the distinction of commanding 8 Mountain Division in Kargil from October 2007 to December 2008.