Delhi HC lists PIL along with other petitions related to Agnipath scheme

New Delhi [India], July 19 (ANI): The Delhi High court on Tuesday listed public interest litigation (PIL) related to the recruitment of defence personnel along with a batch of other similar petitions listed for Wednesday.
Petitioner has sought a direction to complete the recruitment process which was cancelled after the announcement of the Agnipath scheme.
The petition has been moved by one Rahul through advocate Vijay Singh and Pawan Kumar who also applied for recruitment in the defence force. The petition has impleaded the Union of India, the Additional Director General (recruiting) and the Airmen Selection Board.
The petition stated that all three Defence services i.e Army, Navy and Air force issued several advertisements for Persons Below Officer Rank (PBOR) in the years 2020 and 2021, as more than 1 Lakh posts were lying vacant in the Defence forces.
The petition also stated that the petitioner along with lacs of candidates applied for the posts under the above-mentioned advertisements and appeared in the recruitment process.
In furtherance of the recruitment process physical and medical examinations of the candidates have been conducted and the selected candidates have been issued with admit cards to appear in Common Entrance Examination (CEE). Unfortunately, the proposed written examination has been deferred/ postponed by the respondents, illegally and arbitrarily, several times, by citing the Covid-19 outburst, the petition reads.
However, several other examinations took place comfortably including UPSC, NEET, Delhi Judiciary (including the higher judiciary) etc but CEE was deliberately put on hold for the reasons best known to the Respondents, the petition stated.
The petitioner said that in light of a new scheme introduced by the Union of India i.e "AGNIPATH SCHEME", the Respondents arbitrarily cancelled all the pending recruitment process (of years 2020 and 2021) including conducting CEE and asked all the candidates to appear through "AGNIPATH SCHEME" afresh.
It is stated that illegal and arbitrary cancellation of the recruitment process, where the candidates have already cleared the physical and medical examination, not only caused grave shock and immense pain but also violated the fundamental rights of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of The Constitution of India. (ANI)