[BREAKING] Agnipath Scheme: Supreme Court asks Delhi HC to decide first; cases before other HCs to be transferred or deferred

The Supreme Court on Tuesday called for the transfer of the petitions challenging the Central government's Agnipath Scheme, pending before itself and various High Court, to the Delhi High Court..In the alternative, the High Courts may keep the petitions pending, the Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, AS Bopanna and Surya Kant said. The order stated,"We are of the view that the three writ petitions instituted before this court should be transferred to the Delhi HC and renumbered as petitions under Article 226...the High Courts shall furnish an option to the petitioners to either have their pleas transferred to Delhi High Court or the High Courts shall keep the petitions pending and with liberty to the petitioner to move the Delhi HC and intervene in the similar proceedings.".The Court was hearing petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of the Agnipath Scheme, which proposes to induct youth into the Army for four years. One of the petitions, filed by Advocate ML Sharma, prayed for quashing of the notification dated June 14, 2022, issued by the Ministry of Defence announcing the scheme..At the outset, Justice Chandrachud asked the petitioners,"Why should we buck the process laid down under Article 226 of Indian Constitution?"Advocate ML Sharma, appearing as petitioner-in-person, replied,"There are 20 High Courts, all petitioners will reach every High Court. I had filed the first plea here and after this they went to High Court. May be at behest of respondent (Central government)."The Bench then pointed out,"Prashant Bhushan filed a plea in High Court. He cannot file at the behest of the Solicitor General." On a lighter note, Justice Chandrachud said,"Mr ML Sharma, you are not an applicant or an Agniveer. You may be a Veer but not an Agniveer.".Given that there were several petitions challenging the Scheme before various High Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta presented the Court with a consolidated chart of such cases. In this light, the Bench noted,"High Courts which are hearing this are Kerala, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, Patna and Uttarakhand. Several proceedings also before AFT, Kochi. In our view, multiplicity of petitions on subject will not be desirable or proper. One option would be to consolidate all cases...However, doing so will deprive the Court of the benefit of the reasoning of the High Court dealing with validity of the Agnipath Scheme."Nevertheless, the Court ordered,"It would be apt to direct that copy of this order be placed in each of the High Courts. The High Courts shall furnish an option to the petitioners to either have their pleas transferred to the Delhi High Court...or shall keep the petitions pending and with liberty to the petitioner to move the Delhi High Court and intervene in the similar proceedings.".The Delhi High Court is slated to hear petitions challenging recruitment to the Armed Forces through the Agnipath Scheme.The plea filed by Sharma before the apex court stated that as per the Agniveer Scheme, after 4 years, out of the selected candidates, only 25 percent will be continued in Indian Army while the rest will be retired/denied jobs in the Armed Forces.The Scheme has led to large scale protests across the country, and has been imposed upon the country without the approval of Parliament and without a gazette notification, Sharma submitted.