File Picture : Twitter/ ANI
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.
It may be recalled that the recruitment scheme ‘Agnipath’, introduced by the Central government for Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces, was in the eye of storm with protests erupting across the country in several states and trains burnt by protestors .
Trains were set afire and blocked, and public vehicles attacked as protests over ‘Agnipath’ swept across several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Jammu on Thursday amid partisan political voices in favour and against the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces that has set off a firestorm.
