Agnipath Scheme : Supreme Court To Hear Next Week Plea By Candidates Shorlisted For Airmen Recruitment In Air Force

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list next week, subject to the approval of the Chief Justice of India, a plea challenging the Centre's Agnipath recruitment scheme for armed forces.

Advocate Kumud Lata Das mentioned a petition filed by air force aspirants before a vacation bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari for urgent mentioning(Yogesh and others versus Union of India). The lawyer submitted that the scheme should not be made applicable to those who are already undergoing selection process.

The implementation of the Agninpath scheme will cut short the tenure of the aspirants to 4 years from 20 years, she submitted. Despite several mentionings, the Registry has not given a specific date of listing, the counsel added.

The petition under Article 32 was preferred by the 31 selected candidates awaiting their enrolment as Airmen in IAF in Group 'X' Trades (Except Education Instructor) and Group 'Y' {Except Auto Tech, IAF(P), IAF(S) and Musician Trades} for Intake 02/21 conducted by the Central Airmen Selection Board (CASB) against the advertisement dated 11.12.2019 for which online forms were invited 08.01.2020 to 12.01.2020 for both Group X and Group Y streams.

On May 31, 2021, the provisioanl list was published and the petitioners were short-listed. However, the recruitment did not happen due to administrative delays.

Despite being shortlisted candidates as per their merit positions, the enrolment of the Petitioners for Intake 02/2021 is yet to happen notwithstanding the various updates of CASB for delay in recruitment due to administrative reasons. The petitioners submitted that without completing the enrolment process of 02/2021, the Central Government announced the Agnipath scheme on June 14.

The petitioners seek a direction to enrol them as Airmen in furtherance of the recruitment process already underwent by them, regardless of the Agnipath scheme.

They argue that they are not liable for the delay in the recruitment process and the authorities cannot now stall their recruitment citing the Agnipath scheme, taking advantage of the delay caused by themselves.

Advocate ML Sharma, who has filed another PIL challenging the scheme, also joined the mentioning.

The bench agreed to list the matter after re-opening, preferably next week, subject to the approval of the CJI.

Case Details : Yogesh and others versus Union of India and others, WP(c) 457/2022