The High Court of Delhi will give its judgement on the bunch of petitions that challenge the constitutional validity of Agnipath Scheme for the Indian Armed Forces on Monday.
The judgement shall be pronounced by a Division Bench which will comprise of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad at 10:30 am.
The verdict in the matter had been reserved on December 15, 2022.
The bench had heard counsel appearing for the petitioners challenging the scheme as well as halt on recruitment processes in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The Central government Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati argued for the Central government.
Bhati had apprised the Court that the scheme would not make a qualitative difference or quantitative difference, but would bring about a paradigm shift in the recruitment process of the armed forces in the country.
Calling it as one of the biggest changes in the policy of Defence recruitment, Bhati stated that the Indian Army, which started off as the British Army, has evolved over the years.
She added that the government has taken a policy decision in introducing the scheme, which has been carried out uniformly across the services in question.
The Counsel for the Centre said that the Union government has been trying its best to go ahead with recruitment in whatever manner possible.
The decision taken at the highest levels of governance, something that has come out of this study, was now on the horizon, the modalities were being worked out and it was clear that the scheme was going to be a paradigm shift, she added.
The Apex Court today, while hearing the pleas challenging the scheme, also heard other petitioners seeking enrollment as per the previous recruitment scheme.
Bhati had apprised the top court that the decision to introduce the scheme was not taken lightly and that a lot of study has gone into the policy.
She also submitted that the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was presently working on skill-mapping of Agniveers.
In an affidavit submitted earlier, the Union of India had submitted that the objective of the scheme was to have a young combat force, which was physically and mentally capable of taking the new challenges anticipated by experts.