‘You may be Veer but certainly not Agniveer’: SC to lawyer

PTI, Jul 19, 2022, 8:01 PM IST

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday told a lawyer challenging the Centre’s ”Agnipath” scheme that he may be a ”Veer” but not an ”Agniveer”.

The remark was made by a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna after advocate ML Sharma, who has filed a PIL challenging the Centre’s June 14 decision of launching the scheme, said that it has a pan-India effect as youth from different parts of the country will be affected by it.

Sharma said that he was the first to file the plea in the top court after which other petitions were filed including the one filed in the Delhi High Court. Justice Chandrachud said, “This is a PIL Mr. Sharma. You are not a prospective ‘Agniveer’. You may be a ‘Veer’ but certainly not an ‘Agniveer’”.

The Agnipath scheme, announced on June 14, provides for the recruitment of youth between the age of 17-and-a-half and 21 years for four years with a provision to retain 25 percent of them for 15 more years.

Protests had erupted in several states against the scheme. Under the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, the youth of the country will be provided an opportunity to serve in the armed forces as ‘Agniveer’.

Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment this year.