Supreme Court transfers PILs pending before it, other HCs against Centre's 'Agnipath' scheme to Delhi HC

The Supreme Court transferred PILs pending before it challenging the Centres Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the Armed forces to Delhi High CourtA bench of Justices DY Chandrachud Surya Kant and AS Bopanna also asked the High Courts of Kerala Punjab and Haryana Patna and Uttarakhand to transfer the PILs pending before them against the Agnipath scheme to Delhi High Court or keep it pending till a decision from the Delhi High Court if the petitioners before it so desires In this backdrop we are of the view the three writ petitions which have been instituted before this court should be transferred to the Delhi High Court and renumbered under Article 226 of the constitution Ordinarily we would have disposed of these petitions by granting liberty to the petitioners to move the Delhi High Court afresh but we are desisting from following that course of action to obviate any further delay in withdrawal of the petitions and filing of fresh petitions the bench saidThe bench directed the registrar judicial of the top court shall accordingly transmit the record of the three writ petitions filed under Article 32 of the constitution to the registrar judicial of Delhi High Court so that the petitions can be renumbered and be placed before the appropriate bench in terms of the appropriate directions of the Chief Justice of the High Court The top court said that it is being apprised of the fact that several petitions have been filed also before the High Courts of Kerala Patna Punjab and Haryana and Uttarakhand It would be appropriate to direct that the copy of the present order be placed on record of the proceedings in each of the High Courts by the counsel appearing on behalf of Union of India in those proceedings it said The bench said that the High Courts shall furnish an option to petitioners who have moved those petitions under Article 226 to either have their petitions transferred in pursuance of the present directions or in the alternative keep those pending by granting liberty to intervene in the proceedings before the Delhi High CourtIn the event that the petitioners desire the former course of action the proceedings before each High Court shall be transferred to the Delhi High Court for being heard together with the pending proceedings and the proceedings which are being transferred as a result of this order it said The bench said that should the petitioners not desire to follow that course of action the High Courts shall keep those petitions pending and petitioners will be at liberty to intervene before the Delhi High Court so that they have full opportunity to espouse their contentions before the Delhi High Court in the pending proceedingsIn the event that any petitions are filed hereafter the same course of action which we have indicated in the above terms shall be followed by the concerned high court the bench said It said that copy of this order be placed on record and all the petitioners would be at liberty to move the applications before the Delhi High Court We request the Delhi High Court for expeditious disposal of the writ petitions after hearing the parties the bench said adding that the UOI shall ensure that copy of this order is immediately placed before the registrar judicial of the concerned High Courts At the outset advocate Kumud Lata Singh appearing for one Harsh Ajay Singh said that they have challenged the Centres decision of the Agnipath scheme meant for recruitment in the Armed forces Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Centre said that several petitions have been filed across different States and it would be appropriate if all the petitions are heard by the top court or anyone High Court He said that a substantive petition is pending before the Delhi High Court and therefore all the PILs filed across different High Court could be transferred to Delhi High Court The bench said that it can also send all these three PILs listed today to the Delhi High Court as it would be appropriate to have a considered view of the High CourtWe can also give liberty to petitioners before the High Courts to intervene so that they do not feel cheated the bench said Advocate ML Sharma who has also filed a separate petition said he seeks the cancellation of the governments notification about the scheme as more than 70000 aspirants who have undergone training were waiting for their appointment letters before the pandemic and now their career has been shortened by the scheme Sharma said that after he filed the petition in the top court several petitions including the one in Delhi High Court were filedThe bench said This is a PIL Mr Sharma You are not a prospective Agniveer You may be a Veer but certainly not an Agniveer Sharma said that his petition has the panIndia effect to which the bench said that PanIndia does not mean that the apex court will have to hear everything and it would be appropriate to have a considered view of the High Court The Agnipath scheme announced on June 14 provides for the recruitment of youth between the age of 17andahalf and 21 years for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years Protests had erupted in several states against the scheme Later the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment this yearThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever