Morung Express News
Kohima | June 28
The Gauhati High Court Kohima Bench, on June 28, suspended a corrigendum and a notification issued by the Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB), contested in a writ petition as ‘illegal’ at face value.
Consequently, the Court instructed the NSSB to halt the viva voce interview for the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife/Female Health Worker (ANM/FHW) positions, which was reportedly scheduled to begin on July 1, until the next hearing of the related writ petition.
As per the order issued by Justice Kakheto Sema on Friday, the NSSB issued an advertisement on December 15, 2023, for filling up the Group-C vacancies under the Government of Nagaland to be recruited by the NSSB.
Among them were 61 posts of Auxiliary Nurse Midwife/Female Health Worker (ANM/FHW) with the prescribed educational qualification as a two-year course in ANM.
The 17 petitioners were initially selected by a notification dated May 22 and were shortlisted for the viva voce exam scheduled to commence on June 24.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the date of the viva voce exam has been extended, and it is reliably learned that the viva voce exam will be held on July 1.
However, in a corrigendum dated May 23 issued by the NSSB, the petitioners who had been previously selected to appear for the viva voce exam were cancelled.
As per the counsel, the reason for cancelling the viva voce exam of the petitioners was the letter dated May 29 issued by the NSSB, in which the educational qualification for ANM/FHW has been incorporated as a diploma in ANM and FHW Certificate holders.
The same was contrary to the educational qualification prescribed in the original December 15, 2023, advertisement, the counsel added.
Accordingly, the counsel contended that it was “clearly a case where the authorities have changed the rules of the game after the game has commenced, and accordingly, the corrigendum dated May 23, 2024, issued by the NSSB and notification dated June 20, 2024, also issued by the NSSB is clearly illegal and cannot stand the scrutiny of law.”
After hearing the matter in its entirety, the Court granted interim relief to the petitioners, suspending the corrigendum and the notification until the next returnable date after four weeks.
