Delhi HC to hear pleas challenging Agnipath scheme on August 25

Supreme Court

The Delhi High Court Wednesday said it will hear on August 25 a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's Agnipath Scheme as it is yet to receive the files of pleas transferred here by the Supreme Court.

The high court was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta the apex court on July 19 transferred all the pleas pending before it challenging the scheme.

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

On Wednesday, a bench of Delhi High Court Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said the transferred petitions are not before it and the matter be listed for hearing after two weeks.

The court will hear the matter on August 25. The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, provides for the recruitment of youths in the defence forces between the age of 17-and-a-half and 21 for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.

Protests had erupted in several states soon after the scheme was announced last month.

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