25th August 2022: Aishwarya Bhati told the court that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was busy with some other matter and hence could not attend today’s argument. The matter will now come up for hearing on October 19.

A hearing was held in the Delhi High Court today regarding the ambitious plan of the Central Government, Agneepath. The court has refused to put an immediate stay on it. The central government has been given four weeks to file a reply to the petitions challenging this scheme. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramaniam Prasad said it would hear the matter instead of passing an interim order. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Central Government, told the High Court that they would file a reply on all the petitions. To this, the court said that since separate petitions have been filed against the vacancies in the three services, a detailed response should be filed by the government.

Bhati also told the court that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was busy with some other matter and hence could not attend today’s argument. The matter will now come up for hearing on October 19. On June 14, the central government announced the Agneepath scheme. Under this, there is a provision to recruit youth in the age group of 17 to 21 years for only four years. There is also a provision to retain 25 per cent of them in service for 15 years or more. Soon after the announcement of the scheme, protests erupted in several states. Its widespread effect was seen in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

After protests, the central government increased the upper age limit for recruitment to 23 years only for the year 2022. The Supreme Court had on July 19 transferred the petitions related to the scheme to the Delhi High Court.