Delhi High Court reserves judgment on petitions challenging Agnipath Scheme

The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its judgment on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Agnipath Scheme for recruitment to the Indian Armed Forces. .A Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked counsel appearing in the matter to submit their written submissions before the winter vacations. .The Agnipath Scheme proposes to induct youth into the Indian Army for four years. After this period, out of the selected candidates, only 25 per cent will be continued in the Indian Army while the rest will be denied jobs in the Armed Forces.The introduction of the Scheme had prompted widespread protests across the country, some of which turned violent. It also led to a slew of petitions being filed in various courts..Appearing for the Central government today, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati told the Court that the Agnipath Scheme came into the picture only in June 2021, and that was when a decision was taken to put all other recruitment processes on hold. Bhati said that the Scheme was finalised only in June 2022, when it was notified in the Official Gazette. She further said that Agnipath is one of the biggest policy changes in defence recruitment, and was going to be paradigm shift in the way the Armed Forces recruit personnel. "More than 10 lakh aspirants have taken advantage of the two-year age relaxation given by us... A lot of things we cannot say on affidavit but we have acted in bona fide manner," the ASG concluded. .However, Advocate Prashant Bhushan challenged the government's assertions, saying that the government did not stop all recruitment in June 2021 and that some of the recruitment processes were held even in August 2021 and February 2022..After hearing the arguments, the court proceeded to reserve its judgment. .The Central government had earlier filed a consolidated reply to the petitions, stating that Agnipath will make the forces young and recruits who exit after their tenure will prove to be nationalist, disciplined and skilled.The Modi government said that an analysis of the existing structure of 'below officer' rank divisions in the Indian Armed Forces showed that the average age of a personnel was 32 years, while globally, it was only around 26 years. The Armed Forces’ retention policy under which a jawan, sailor or airman serves between 15 to 20 years, is the main reason for it, it was submitted..Agniveers lower in rank to sepoys; service will not be considered part of regular service in Armed forces: Central government to Delhi High Court