Delhi high court denies stay on Agnipath recruitments

Giving four weeks to the Centre to file the response, a bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad said it would finally hear the matter, instead of passing an interim order.

The Delhi high court on Thursday declined to halt the Agnipath scheme of the Union government and granted it time to file a reply to a bunch of pleas challenging the defence recruitment plan.

Additional solicitor general Aishwariya Bhati, for the Union government, said they would file a “consolidated” response to all the petitions. (Representational photo)

Giving four weeks to the Centre to file the response, a bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad said it would finally hear the matter, instead of passing an interim order.

“We will hear you finally. No interim order. We will decide the matter. We will not complicate it unnecessarily...We will decide it finally…We will not stay it. If you succeed, you will get it,” the bench said as the counsel for one of the petitioners urged the court to stay the operation of the scheme till the next date.

Additional solicitor general Aishwariya Bhati, for the Union government, said they would file a “consolidated” response to all the petitions.

The court, however, said that since the batch of pleas pertains to issues concerning the advertisement for recruitment to posts of soldier, airman, sailor, etc, the Centre must also file a detailed response in individual cases as well.

“The point is we cannot keep endlessly dragging the matter... There are different categories of matters and there is a list before me. There are cases where the selection is over, where the selection is midway. There are slightly different types of cases. You file a reply. We will hear this matter finally,” the court remarked.

Bhati apprised the court that solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta was occupied in some other matters and would not argue on Thursday. She sought that the matter be placed any time next week.

The court was also informed that apart from the transferred batch, about 7-8 other petitions were yet to be transferred.

The court posted the matter for October 19.

The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, provides for recruitment of people between the age of 17-and-a-half and 21 for four years with a provision to retain 25% of them for 15 more years. Protests erupted in several states soon after the scheme was announced.

Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment under the scheme in 2022.

During the hearing when the bench sought to know if the Union government had filed its reply, the government counsel said a notice was yet to be issued and the Supreme Court had said all the matters related to the scheme should be transferred to the Delhi high court and some of the petitions were yet to be received.

The bench said even if a notice was not issued on the last date of hearing on July 20, “the understanding” was that the court will hear the matter on the next date.

“You were required to file a reply,” it said.

The apex court on July 19 transferred before the Delhi high court all the pleas pending before it challenging the scheme.

The top court also asked the high courts of Kerala, Punjab and Haryana, Patna, and Uttarakhand to transfer the PILs against the Agnipath scheme before them to the Delhi high court or keep them pending till a decision is delivered if the petitioners so desire.

One of the petitions filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan has been moved by 20 candidates awaiting enrolment as airmen in the Indian Air Force in Group “X” (except education instructor trade) and Group “Y” trades (except automobile technician, Indian Air Force, Security, Indian Air Force, Police), trades.

Advocate ML Sharma, who had also filed a separate petition in the top court, had said he sought the cancellation of the government’s notification of the scheme as more than 70,000 aspirants who underwent training were waiting for their appointment letters before the pandemic and now their careers had been shortened by the scheme.

Before the Delhi high court, one of the petitions sought a direction to the armed forces to resume the recruitment process cancelled due to the introduction of the Agnipath scheme and prepare the final merit list after conducting a written examination within a stipulated time.