Kohima: The Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench, has officially affirmed that teachers recruited under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan schemes did not become members of the Nagaland State Education Cadre until April 21, 2022. A Division Bench consisting of Justices Kalyan Rai Surana and Sanjeev Kumar Sharma dismissed appeals from teachers who sought to have their cadre status backdated to their initial appointments in 2010 and 2013.
The legal dispute followed a 2022 State Cabinet decision to mainstream these employees into the School Education Department. While the teachers argued that their regular pay scales, service books, and participation in the New Pension Scheme effectively granted them state cadre status, the court maintained that the nature of their original appointments remained linked to the centrally sponsored schemes.
The court noted that while the state provided benefits often associated with regular employment, this did not legally transition the teachers into the state cadre before the 2022 mainstreaming order. The bench highlighted that the government retained the discretion to offer improved service benefits without automatically changing the underlying appointment status.
In its ruling, the court stated, "Any omission on the part of the Government in issuing advertisement or the grant of pay-scale with pay-band or granting of MACP or admitting the appellants to NPS, would not have the effect of diluting the nature of the initial appointment, which was the appointment of the appellants as Graduate Teachers in various schools in the State of Nagaland."
Ultimately, the Division Bench found no errors in the previous judgment and concluded that the teachers failed to prove they were part of the state cadre prior to the specific April 2022 cabinet approval.
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