The Kohima bench of Gauhati High Court dismissed the writ petition filed by the Public Service Aspirants of Nagaland (PSAN) and the Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) Nagaland against 706 backdoor appointments.
Sources on Saturday said after the final hearing held on July 26, the court on Friday dismissed the case stating that the petition is “not maintainable in its present form.”
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Justice Michael Zothankhuma ruled that the petitioners will have to show that they were aggrieved by the appointments and provide material particulars to challenge the appointments, keeping in mind the relevant recruitment rules.
The petitioners were, however, given the liberty to make a fresh challenge to the appointments of the impleaded respondents and other persons as per law, as the present writ petition has not been dismissed on merit but only on the issue of maintainability.
The court ruling said the petitioners made a sweeping challenge to appointments made in various grades of posts pertaining to approximately 25 government departments, thereby trying to brush aside all alleged irregularities and illegalities with one sweep of the broom.
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“It is very difficult for this Court to sift through the facts of this case in the absence of complete material facts, in respect to the challenge made to 706 allegedly irregular/illegal appointments,” the judgment said.
It further observed that the petitioners will have to file separate petitions making a challenge to the various appointments by giving specific particulars, as their grievance relates to different appointments in various department of the government of Nagaland.
The court also said this particular writ petition cannot be decided piece meal and that the petitioners will also have to impaled all persons whose rights may be affected by the petitions.
The court further observed that primacy should be given to advertisements before filling up vacant posts as per the recruitment Rules in force.
It also said any contractual, temporary or ad-hoc appointments made, without prior advertisements being issued in the media, including newspapers, is violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution and liable to be set aside and the said post filled up as allowed as per law.