New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the Agnipath recruitment scheme for the armed forces, reported news agency PTI. The High Court also asked the Centre to file its reply on a batch of petitions challenging it, reported the news agency.
The two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the Centre to file consolidated reply on petitions challenging the scheme in four weeks, as per the report.
The Agnipath scheme was announced by the Centre on June 14 under which youths between the age of 17-and-a-half years and 21 will be recruited in the armed forces for a period of four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for more than 15 years.
Opposing the scheme, job aspirants took to the street in several parts of the country to protest against the scheme which turned violent at many places.
Railways bore most of the brunt of the protest as many trains were torched or stone pelted by the protestors at many places — Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Telangana and others — who blocked the tracks resulting in cancellation or diversion of many trains.
In the recently concluded monsoon session of the Parliament, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Rajya Sabha on Thursday that Indian Railways suffered a loss of Rs 259.44 crores due to damage and destruction of its assets by protesters
In a written reply in the Upper House, Vaishnaw also pointed out that 2,000 trains were affected due to the Agnipath protests across the country.
Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment under the scheme in 2022.