Kohima: The Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court shut down a bid by 84 Postgraduate Teachers to overturn the seniority and promotions of 23 contractual teachers. Justice Yarenjungla Longkumer dismissed the case on August 10. The court cited excessive delay and laches as the primary drivers for the ruling. Petitioners failed to justify waiting years to bring the matter before a judge.
These teachers entered the service via the Nagaland Public Service Commission in 2011. They aimed to invalidate the regularisation of 23 colleagues hired on contract between 2000 and 2003. The group argued that these appointments broke the 2002 Nagaland School Education Service Revised Rules. They also pushed to reverse the June 2026 promotion of 12 respondents to Vice-Principal roles.
The state fired back. Officials noted that the 23 teachers filled vacant roles during a period of critical staff shortages. Those hires went through a suitability test after completing three years of service, leading to a January 2011 regularisation. Seniority lists published in 2011, 2016, and 2018 clearly ranked these contractual staff above the petitioners. Nobody challenged the lists at the time.
The court refused to reopen the dispute. Stability matters. "Entertaining the claim at this belated stage would unsettle matters which have attained finality with the passage of time," the Bench observed. The court did not rule on the merits of the underlying employment claims.
In a separate August 31 ruling, the same bench cleared three contractors of criminal charges. Thepfusatuo Rio and his partners at M/s Hexad Syndicate faced a CBI investigation regarding a 2008 road project in Kohima. Prosecutors alleged the firm received excess payments on a Rs 5.82 crore contract. The court found no evidence of fraud or collusion with engineers, declaring the matter a contractual issue rather than a criminal one.
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