From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Wednesday fixed on August 25 the hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s Agnipath scheme for recruitment in all three armed forces as it is yet to receive the files transferred by the Supreme Court.
The high court was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta the apex court on July 19 transferred all the pleas pending before it and before other high courts, challenging the scheme.
A bench of Delhi High Court Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said the transferred petitions are not before it even though the top court asked expeditious hearing on all petitions.
The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, provides for the recruitment of youths in the defence forces between the age of 17-and-a-half and 23 for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years. Protests had erupted in several states soon after the scheme was announced last month as it is a sort of contract job unlike the regular pensionable service in vogue in the Armed Forces since before Independence.
Instead of itself adjudicating the sensitive issue of recruitment in the armed forces, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopannato on Tuesday asked Delhi HC to consider all the transferred pleas.
