The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces while hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the scheme.
A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the Centre to give a consolidated reply on the petitions and posted the matter for hearing on October 19.
Last month, the Supreme Court had made the Delhi High Court the core forum to examine the legality of the Agnipath recruitment scheme, noting that multiple litigations on the scheme are “neither desirable nor proper”.
The top court had noted that petitions, either challenging Agnipath or seeking directions to the Centre and the Armed Forces to complete the recruitment process started before the scheme, were pending in various High Courts – Delhi, Kerala, Patna, Uttarakhand and Punjab and Haryana, -- and in the Armed Forces Tribunal at Kochi.
The SC had said that the other High Courts could either transfer their cases, with the permission of the petitioners, to Delhi or keep those petitions pending there and allow the petitioners to intervene in the proceedings in Delhi. The same course of action could be taken by High Courts in case petitions challenging Agnipath are filed in the future.
Multiple petitions
The Delhi High Court is seized of multiple petitions seeking direction to the Armed Forces to resume the recruitment process cancelled due to the introduction of the Agnipath scheme. In one of these petitions, over 20 candidates shortlisted for the position of ‘Airmen’ following a 2020 recruitment process initiated by the Indian Air Force, have urged the government to publish the enrolment list.
Another petition has been filed by a candidate, Rahul, who had applied for Soldier General Duty in Army Recruitment Rally at Sirsa in 2020. The plea states that the Army after conducting the physical and medical examination in 2021, postponed the recruitment due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Rahul in his plea, filed through advocate Vijay Ahlawat, said that after the announcement of the Agnipath scheme, the Centre has cancelled all pending recruitment processes, including the Common Entrance Examination (CEE) of Indian Army Recruitment for the previous years.
In the apex court, advocate M.L. Sharma had challenged the Agnipath scheme on the ground that it would cause “serious injury” to citizens, the institution of the Armed Forces and the country as a whole.
Another petition before the apex court filed by advocate Harsh Ajay Singh argued that a mere four-year tenure would not equip young men and women, personally and professionally, to face a competitive world outside the Armed Forces.
Other petitions complained about how the ongoing recruitment process to the Armed Forces was derailed by the declaration of the Agnipath scheme. In some cases, candidates had successfully completed their tests and were waiting for their appointment letters before Agnipath was announced.
