The Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the Centre’s Agneepath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces, saying it was designed in the national interest and to ensure that the armed forces are better equipped.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramaniam Prasad dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the scheme and said there was no reason to interfere with it.
Apart from pleas challenging the Agneepath scheme, the court also dismissed petitions relating to the recruitment process for the armed forces under certain previous advertisements and clarified that such candidates are not entitled to be recruited.
The court had reserved its order on the batch of pleas on December 15 last year.
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The Agneepath scheme, unveiled on June 14, 2022, lays down rules for recruitment of youth in the armed forces.
As per these rules, people in the age group of 17½ to 21 years are eligible to apply and will be inducted for a term of four years. The scheme allows 25 per cent of them to provide regular service later. After the unveiling of the plan, protests broke out in several states against the plan.
Later, the government increased the upper age limit to 23 years for the recruitment in 2022.
Earlier during the arguments, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Center and Central Government Standing Counsel Harish Vaidyanathan had said that the Agneepath scheme is one of the biggest policy changes in defense recruitment and will bring about a paradigm shift. It’s going to be The way the armed forces recruit personnel.
The ASG said, “More than 10 lakh candidates have availed the two-year relaxation given by us… Many things we cannot say on the affidavit, but we have done the right thing.”
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners in a plea regarding cancellation of recruitment processes for the Armed Forces under some previous advertisements, had submitted that the government has not stopped all recruitments in June 2021 and some recruitment processes will be conducted in August 2021 as well. were done. and in early 2022.
The High Court had also asked the Center to justify the different pay scales of ‘agniviers’ and regular soldiers in the Indian Army, if they have the same job profile.
Defending its Agneepath plan, the Center has said that a huge amount of study has gone into the policy and it was not a decision taken lightly and the union India Was aware and aware of the situation.
The bench had asked the petitioners, who have challenged the Centre’s short-term military recruitment scheme Agneepath, as to which rights have been violated and said it is voluntary and those who have any problem are allowed to join the armed forces under it. Should not happen.
It had said that the Agneepath scheme has been prepared by experts from the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the judges were not military experts.
A counsel for the petitioners had submitted that after being recruited under the scheme, the Agniveers would have a life cover of Rs 48 lakh in case of contingencies which is much less than the existing one.
The counsel had argued that whatever the armed forces personnel are entitled to, these Agniveers would get them only for four years, adding that if the service was for five years, they would have been entitled to gratuity.
The Center had earlier filed its consolidated reply to several petitions against the Agneepath scheme as well as petitions related to recruitment procedures for the armed forces under some previous advertisements and said there was no legal infirmity in it.
The government submitted that the Agneepath scheme was introduced in the exercise of its sovereign function to make national security and defense more “robust,” “impenetrable” and “in sync with the changing military requirements”.
One of the petitions filed before the High Court sought resumption of the recruitment process that was canceled due to the introduction of the Agneepath scheme and a direction to the armed forces to prepare a final merit list after conducting a written test within a stipulated time. has been demanded.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the High Courts of Kerala, Punjab and Haryana, Patna and Uttarakhand to transfer pending PILs against the Agneepath scheme to the Delhi High Court or keep it pending till the Delhi High Court decides. , if the petitioners so desire earlier.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)