Morung Express News
Kohima | December 3
The Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench, has reserved its judgment in two appeals challenging the Nagaland State Government’s decision to regularise contractual doctors and health workers engaged during the COVID 19 pandemic.
“These two appeals have been heard together… Judgment is reserved,” stated the order issued by the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury on December 3.
The controversy stems from the Cabinet decision dated August 6, 2024, which sought to regularise COVID era contractual health workers through a Special Recruitment Drive, bypassing standard recruitment rules under the Nagaland Health Service Rules, 2006.
Petitioners, primarily members of the Nagaland Medical Students’ Association, challenged the decision, citing violations of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, and argued that regularisation was not a mode of recruitment and that they, as qualified candidates, were entitled to equal opportunity.
In a common judgment, a single judge had earlier dismissed the writ petitions on three grounds: lack of locus standi, non-challenge to previous policy decisions of 2020 and 2022, and the classification of the Cabinet decision as a policy matter not amenable to judicial interference.
Subsequently, the State issued a notification on August 18, 2025, initiating the regularisation process for 280 posts.
The petitioners then appealed the Single Judge’s common judgment and order of August 1, 2025, before the Division Bench. The court’s earlier interim directions, which stayed the Cabinet decision of August 6, 2024, and the notification of August 18, 2025, remain in effect, suspending the regularisation process pending the final verdict.
