'Sorry, we won't,' says SC while rejecting pleas against Agnipath scheme

The Supreme Court has held that the Agnipath scheme is valid and not arbitrary.

The court rejected two appeals and said that the scheme is not arbitrary in nature.Public interests outweigh other considerations, the court also said. The court said that candidates selected in the defence recruitment process before the introduction of the Agnipath scheme do not have a vested right to appointment.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala were hearing the matter.

The appeals were filed after the Delhi High Court upheld the validity of the scheme. The Delhi High Court was hearing two petitions against the scheme, following which both were rejected. The High Court had held that the scheme was formulated in national interest with a laudable objective of maintaining national security.

The Agnipath scheme was formulated in national interest and to ensure that that the armed forces were better equipped, the Delhi HC had said.

"Sorry, we would not like to interfere with the high court verdict. The high court had dealt with all the aspects", the Supreme Court said while rejecting the pleas filed by Gopal Krishna and advocate M L Sharma.

The Supreme Court however posted a third fresh plea related to the recruitment in the Indian Air Force (IAF), prior to the launch of the Agnipath scheme for hearing on April 17. It asked the Centre to file its response to the third plea related to the recruitment of the IAF.