Supreme Court Transferred Writ Petitions Challenging Agnipath Scheme To Delhi HC

The Supreme Court on July 19 transferred the writ petitions filed before it challenging the Agnipath recruitment scheme for the armed forces to the Delhi High Court, which is dealing with petitions of similar nature.

A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices Surya Kant and AS Bopanna passed the order in three writ petitions filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. Two petitions were public interest litigation while one was a writ petition filed by a group of persons who had been shortlisted for airman selection in the Indian Air Force. The set of persons had plead that the recruitment formalities which began in previous years should be completed regardless of the Agnipath scheme.

The Supreme Court declined to transfer petitions which were pending before the High Courts to itself on the ground that it would deprive the top court of the reasoning and opinion of the High Courts.

"In our view, a multiplicity of writ petitions on the subject would not either be desirable or proper. One option would be for this court to consolidate and transfer all pending proceedings before this court. However this would deprive this court of the considered view of the High Court on various aspects of the validity of the scheme and its implementation which are being raised in several high courts", said the Apex Court.

The bench also underlined that similar petitions are pending before other High Courts of Kerala, Punjab & Haryana, Allahabad and Patna.

With regards to petitions of similar nature pending in other High Courts, Supreme Court observed that the HCs should give an alternative to the petitioners to either have their writs transferred to the Delhi HC or to keep their petitions pending along with liberty to petitioners to intervene in Delhi HC.

"The court has been apprised of the fact as noted above that several petitions have been filed also before the High Courts of Patna, Punjab and Haryana, Uttarakhand, Kerala. It will be appropriate to direct that a copy of the present order may be placed on the record of the proceedings in each of the High Courts by the counsel appearing on behalf of the union of India in those proceedings. The High Courts shall furnish an option to the 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 to keep those petitions pending while granting liberty to the petitioners to intervene in the proceedings before the Delhi High Court. In the event that the petitioners desire the former course of action, the proceedings before each of the High Court will in turn be transferred to the Delhi High Court to be heard along with the pending proceedings. If the petitioners do not desire to follow that course of action, the High Courts shall keep those petitions pending and the petitioners before the High Court would be at liberty to intervene before the Delhi High Court so that they have a full opportunity of espousing their contentions before the Delhi High Court in the pending proceedings", the Court's order further observed.

The Court also requested the Delhi High Court to conclude with the matter expeditiously.