E-Paper
NCC cadets who cleared army test challenge Agnipath in Kerala high court
The Agnipath scheme, which was unveiled on June 14 to induct the youth between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure, had triggered violent protests across the nation.
A group of army aspirants on Monday approached the Kerala high court against the Centre’s new recruitment scheme Agnipath. Though the court admitted their plea it said it has to check with the Supreme Court since many such pleas were pending before the apex court.
The 23 petitioners, who had cleared the physical and medical tests for the Indian Army last year sought proper placement. The petitioners said that they had applied for the test in 2020 as per the notification issued by the army and in February 2021 their physical and medical tests were conducted by the commanding officer (recruitment), south Kerala region. The petitioners said they were waiting for the common entrance examination, final criteria, to join the army.
They also said all of them were NCC (National Cadet Corps) cadets and hold the NCC “C” certificates. The petitioners stated that usually “C” certificate holders of the NCC get due weightage in the examinations and they have spent two years to fulfil all the formalities and that it was unfair to go through all the rigors yet again.
“Petitioners are patriotic youngsters since childhood and have participated in many camps conducted by the NCC. They are eligible and denial of opportunities to achieve their life goal amounts to miscarriage of justice,” the plea read. They said that the denial of opportunity at this juncture was arbitrary and discriminative and sought the court’s intervention to ensure proper placement for them.
The plea was filed by Abymon Varghese, a resident of Kottayam and others, via their counsel B A Aloor. Meanwhile the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a bunch of pleas questioning the new recruitment scheme next week.
The Agnipath scheme, which was unveiled on June 14 to induct the youth between the ages of 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure, had triggered violent protests across the nation amid criticism about the length of service and the lack of pension provisions for those released early. Despite protests, later all three forces (army, navy and air force) notified the scheme and invited applications for Agniveers.
The Modi government also announced several measures to reassure protesters, such as a 10% reservation in job vacancies for Agniveers, age relaxation and expanded recruitment of women sailors for the Navy from the scheme.
The monthly salary of an ‘Agniveer’ in the first year will be ₹30,000. It will increase to ₹33,000 in the second year, ₹36,000 in the third and ₹40,000 in the fourth year.
