The Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the Constitutional validity of the Government’s new Agnipath short-term military recruitment scheme and maintained that it was formulated in “national interest.”

The court dismissed a bunch of pleas challenging the scheme, which triggered protests last year over its short tenure.

“This court does not find any reason to interfere with the scheme. All petitions challenging the Agnipath scheme are dismissed,” the court said.

A bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad also dismissed pleas seeking resumption and enrolment under the previous recruitment scheme in defence services.

The Agnipath scheme was announced in June last year outlining rules for armed forces recruitment. Under the scheme, around 46,000 soldiers between the ages of 17.5 and 21 years, known as Agniveers will be recruited into the Army, Navy and Air Force for a period of four years on a short-term contractual basis. Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment in 2022.

Recruitments have already taken place under the scheme.