Morung Express News
Kohima | August 24
The Supreme Court has listed for hearing on September 7 the Special Leave Petition challenging the regularisation of 98 in-service medical officers who served during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nagaland.
The matter was mentioned before a Bench comprising Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M Pancholi on August 22, which ordered, “List on 07.09.2026.”
The petition challenges the December 11, 2025 judgment of the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench, which had dismissed appeals against a Single Judge ruling upholding the State government’s decision to regularise the 98 medical officers.
The Supreme Court had earlier issued notice in the matter on January 16, 2026. However, the Bench made it clear that “the present claim of the petitioners will have no bearing on the appointments already made by the State.”
The State Health Department, subsequently maintained that the apex court had upheld the regularisation.
The regularisation issue, however, remained contentious, with the months that followed marked by conflicting government decisions, protests by student and doctors’ bodies, and ongoing legal developments.
The case stems from the Division Bench judgment dismissing appeals against the Single Judge’s decision rejecting two writ petitions challenging the State government’s Special Recruitment Drive (SRD) to regularise 98 in-service medical officers who had served during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Division Bench had found “no infirmity in the reasoning of the learned Single Judge” and dismissed the appeals.
“The State is permitted to proceed with the regulation under the special recruitment drive if it has not already been completed,” the Division Bench had added.
The Single Judge had upheld the State’s one-time SRD, holding that it was not a regular recruitment exercise open to all eligible MBBS graduates but a targeted policy for doctors who had served during the pandemic and continued to remain in service.
The challenge was brought by two sets of petitioners-MBBS graduates who questioned the regularisation under the Nagaland Health Service Rules, 2006, and doctors who had served during the pandemic but later left government service to pursue postgraduate studies.
The Single Judge had dismissed both petitions, holding that the first group was not similarly situated to the beneficiaries of the SRD, while the second group could not seek regularisation after leaving government service.
