Agnipath: Delhi HC reserves judgement on pleas opposing the scheme

The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its judgement on a number of petitions opposing the Centre’s Agnipath scheme for armed forces recruitment.

Besides pleas directly challenging Agnipath, the high court also reserved its verdict on petitions concerning the recruitment processes for the armed forces under certain previous advertisements.

The Centre and petitioners’ counsel have been given until December 23 to submit written arguments, before the court goes for the holidays. The bench, which is made up of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, issued the request.

The rules for enlisting young people in the armed forces are outlined in the Agnipath scheme, which was introduced on June 14 this year.

These rules state that applicants must be between 17 and a half and 21 years old and they would be inducted for a four-year tenure.  Twenty-five percent of them are eligible for future regular service under the scheme. The scheme’s primary objectives are to reduce the average age of the military services and reduce the ballooning pension costs. The scheme was started because more money was going toward salaries and pensions than toward the armed forces’ urgently required modernization.

Violent protests broke out throughout various Indian states as army aspirants demanded the repeal rollback of the new scheme and damaged public property after it was announced on June 14, 2022.  Opposition parties in India also criticised and expressed concerns about the consequences of the new scheme.

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

(With inputs from PTI)

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