Supreme Court agrees to hear pleas on Agnipath next week

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine next week a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre’s Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment into the armed forces.

“List the matter before an appropriate bench in the week commencing July 12,” said a bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari after the matter was mentioned before it.

Advocate Kumud Lata mentioned the petition on behalf of Harsh Ajay Singh, requesting for an urgent hearing. The court ordered for listing it on reopening of the courts after the summer vacation, subject to approval of the Chief Justice of India.

Advocate ML Sharma, another petitioner questioning the validity of the scheme, also mentioned his plea for listing. The bench responded that his plea will also be considered by the court registry for the listing.

Ahead of registrations for the first batch of Agniveers, in the armed forces that began on June 24, the Centre on June 19 approached the Supreme Court seeking a right to be heard before any action is to be taken on the public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the scheme.

In its caveat, the Centre told the court: “Let nothing be done in the above-mentioned matter (Agnipath scheme) without notice to the undersigned.”

Since the launch of the scheme on June 14, at least three PILs have been filed in the top court. The petitioners include Harsh Ajay Singh and two advocates — Vishal Tiwari and ML Sharma.

The petitions have challenged the Agnipath scheme, which provides for the recruitment of youths in the age bracket of 17-and-a-half to 21 for four years with the provision to retain 25% of them for 15 more years while the remaining 75% will get a one-time financial package of approximately ₹11.71 lakh. The announcement led to nationwide protests against the scheme. Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment in 2022.

Singh, in his plea, claimed that the scheme “undermines the armed forces’ professionalism, ethos, and fighting spirit and will potentially lead to the militarisation of civil society”.

Pointing to the violent protests in the country, the PIL stated, “The scheme is facing a country-wide violent protest due to its uncertainty, future insecurity and giving precedence to economy over security.”

Singh even questioned the efficacy of the six-month training spell for the Agniveers as inadequate for having a “battleworthy” and “suitably proficient” force. The petition termed the scheme “illegal” and “unconstitutional” as it sought direction from the apex court to quash the June 14 press note issued by the ministry of defence launching the scheme.