Shillong: The Meghalaya High Court has reinstated four scientists whose appointments at the North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) were cancelled in 2022.
The court declared the cancellations legally void and directed that the scientists be restored to their posts with full back wages, allowances, and service benefits.
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The judgment was delivered on July 8, 2025, by a division bench comprising Chief Justice I P Mukerji and Justice W Diengdoh.
The petitioners — Ankit Shrivastava, Simon Phukan, Simanta Das, and Rakesh Kumar Sarmah — were appointed in November 2021 through a recruitment process approved by NECTAR’s Executive Committee and Governing Council.
However, their appointments were cancelled during the 9th Governing Council meeting in August 2022, reportedly following objections from the Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
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The court noted that the cancellation had been carried out “at the whim and caprice of the secretary,” and found no procedural basis for it. It observed that there was no reason to doubt the authenticity of the appointment letters issued under the seal of NECTAR and signed by the Director General.
The bench also took note of the professional disruption caused to the scientists, several of whom had resigned from earlier positions to join NECTAR.