The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre why there was a difference in pay scale between ‘Agniveers’ and regular cadres in the Indian Army.
A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, who was representing the Centre, “If the job profile is same, then how can you justify different pay? A lot will depend on the job profile. Get instructions on this and put it on an affidavit.”
Additional Solicitor General Bhati said that as Agniveer cadre is separate from the regular cadre, their terms and conditions and responsibilities are also different from sepoys (soldiers).
“Agniveer has been created as a separate cadre. It will not be counted as regular service. After serving as an Agniveer for four years, if he or she volunteers and is found fit, then his journey in the regular cadre begins,” Ms. Bhati submitted.
The Central government was responding to a batch of petitions challenging its Agnipath scheme. Ms. Bhati said numerous consultations, both internal and external, were carried out during the past two years and a number of meetings and consultations over many hours have also been held with the stakeholders.
The Centre further said that below the officers’ post, Agniveer is the only way to join the armed forces now at soldiers’ level and only the medical section has been kept out of it.
Many candidates have moved the court to direct the armed forces to resume the recruitment process cancelled due to the introduction of the Agnipath scheme.
The Centre, however, has argued that no appointment letter has ever been issued to the candidates who had applied under various recruitment advertisements, issued by the Air Force, Army and Navy.
“Recruitment under various earlier schemes do not bar the government from discontinuing with the ongoing recruitment process and come up with a new recruitment scheme,” the Centre said adding that much of the recruitment process before the introduction of Agnipath scheme were at the “nascent stage”.
In an earlier affidavit, the Centre has defended the Agnipath scheme saying that it aims at enhancing the youthful profile of armed forces, reducing average age of soldiers from 32 years to 26 years over a period of time.
With the introduction of Agnipath scheme, the ‘leader to led’ ratio will become 1:1 from the current ratio of 1:1.28, the Centre has said.
In July, this year, the Supreme Court had made the Delhi High Court the core forum to examine the question of legality of the Agnipath recruitment scheme, noting that multiple litigation on the Agnipath scheme is “neither desirable nor proper”. This has meant that the high court is currently seized of multiple petitions against the scheme.
The high court will continue hearing the batch of petitions on December 15.
