Chief of Army Staff General Ved Prakash Malik had met Narayanan, the Supreme Commander of the armed forces on Sunday, to apprise him of Deve Gowda's ``character assassination'' of Lieutenant General SS Mehta, deputy chief of army staff.

Malik objected to the former prime minister's naming Lt Gen Mehta while talking of the T-90 tank deal in his speech on April 16. A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman today told The Indian Express: ``The Parliament is supreme and the matter pertains to the floor of the House and should be decided there.''

The Speaker is yet to take a decision on Defence Minister George Fernandes's request to expunge the remarks against Lt Gen Mehta. Fernandes had written a letter toSpeaker GMC Balayogi on April 17 after General Malik registered his protest with the Defence Minister.

The Speaker's office said that though there had been some delay in receiving the Defence Minister's letter, it had now been sent to the Secretary General's office for ``further action.''

Referring to Lt Gen Mehta in his Parliament speech, Gowda had said that when Mehta was Military Assistant (MA) to the then Chief of Army Staff, late General Sundarji, he had altered his confidential report and removed certain negative remarks.

In his address at the Army Commanders' Conference yesterday, Gen Malik had referred to ``political debates inside and outside Parliament wherein the name of the senior Army officer was mentioned.''