Delhi High Court To Pronounce Judgment On Petitions Challenging Agnipath Scheme On Monday

The Delhi High Court will pronounce on Monday its judgment on the pleas challenging Central Government’s Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad will pronounce the decision. The judgment was reserved on December 15 last year.

In November, 2022, the bench had decided that it will first hear the pleas challenging the Agnipath Scheme and then proceed to hear other pleas seeking resumption and enrolment as per previous recruitment advertisements in defence services.

The apex court had earlier transferred various writ petitions filed challenging the Agnipath recruitment scheme to the High Court, where similar petitions were already pending.

Seeking dismissal of the petitions, the Centre had told court that defending India's territory, which faces external and internal threats, requires an agile, youthful and technologically sound armed forces.

The government further argued that the objective of the scheme is to have a young combat force which is physically and mentally capable of taking the new challenges anticipated by experts.

Based on detailed deliberations over an extended period of time with all stakeholders, the Centre said, a model comprising a well experienced permanent cadre with niche operational and technical skills "supported by a youthful and a well-equipped support cadre comprising dynamic rank and file" was envisaged.

On the aspect of four years duration of the service of Agniveer recruits, the Centre said that the duration of training has been optimised to meet the organisational requirement.

It was submitted that all recruitment into Armed Forces will be conducted only through Agnipath Scheme, utilising contemporary technology, practices and systems to select the most capable youth for a period of four years.

It was also submitted that the decision to introduce the scheme was not taken lightly and that a lot of study went into the policy. It was further said that the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is working on skill-mapping of the Agniveers.