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A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the Centre to file a consolidated reply on petitions challenging the scheme.
The Agnipath scheme announced on June 14 provides for recruitment of youths in the defence forces between the age of 17-and-a-half and 21 for only four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years. Protests had erupted in several states soon after the scheme was announced last month.
Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment under the scheme in 2022.