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Morung Express News
Kohima | September 3
The Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench (GHCKB), on Wednesday stayed the Nagaland Government’s August 18 notification seeking to regularise 280 COVID-19 appointees through a departmental screening committee, observing that the matter requires further ‘consideration.’
The Division Bench comprising Justice Devashis Barua and Justice Pranjal Das passed the interim order while hearing a writ appeal filed by the Nagaland Medical Students’ Association (NMSA) against a single-judge judgment order.
Earlier, on August 1, a single judge of the High Court had dismissed the two writ petitions on three grounds: the petitioners lacked locus standi; that they had not challenged earlier government policies; and that the August 6, 2024 State’s Cabinet decision allowing regularisation of COVID-19 appointees was a policy matter and not ‘arbitrary or illegal’ and beyond the scope of judicial interference.
Challenging the order, the counsel for petitioners argued that the regularisation of COVID-19 appointees violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, as well as the Nagaland Health Service Rules, 2006, framed under Article 309.
It was contended that regularisation cannot be treated as a mode of recruitment and that duly qualified aspirants were denied equal opportunity through open competitive examinations.
On the other ends, the respondents questioned the maintainability of the appeal, citing the lack of locus standi, among others.
During the hearing, the court also took note of a subsequent notification dated August 18, 2025, which had initiated the process of regularising 280 appointees, including Medical Officers, AYUSH doctors, Staff Nurses, and other technical posts.
However, with the August 1 judgement order being under reconsideration, the Bench in its oral order noted that Bench observed that continuing with the notification while the appeal was pending could “result in failure of justice.”
Accordingly, the Court ordered a stay on the August 18 notification issued by the Chief Secretary to the Government of Nagaland, and directed that no further action be taken under it until the next date of hearing.
It must be noted here that NMSA had been leading a ‘peaceful agitation’ over the issue since August 31, a development pointed out during the Court’s proceedings on Wednesday.
