Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the appointments of 239 persons allegedly non-indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland, appointed to Grade-IV posts, the Gauhati High Court (GHC) has directed government of Nagaland “not to make any recruitment in Grade-IV post of different trade in the police department without advertisement and from people who are not indigenous inhabitants of the state.”
The order was issued after the petitioner (ST Yapang) filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the appointments of 239 alleged non-indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland who were appointed in Grade-IV post of different trades in various establishments of the police department. Further the petitioner pointed out that the appointments were in violation of Notification No.APPT-18/6/67 dated September 19,1987 issued by the chief secretary, which stipulated that 100% of non-tehcnical Class-III and IV posts and 80% of all other posts be reserved for recruitment or persons who are indigenous inhabitant of Nagaland. Further, the petitioner contended that as per RTI, all 239 appointees (respondent No.29 to 259) were “all outsiders” who were appointed without having the posts advertised and also by ignoring the 1987 notification issued by the chief secretary. On the basis of the above, the petitioner concluded that the appointments were “illegal and deserves to be quashed.”
The counsel for the petitioner also prayed that while awaiting return of the notice, the respondents be directed “not to appoint or make any recruitment in the police department without issuing advertisement.”
On the other hand, the counsel for the respondent (state government’s advocate) accepted the notice of the respondents (no. 1 to 16) and submitted that “interim prayer may be considered on the returnable date since there are contradictory facts and circumstance.”
Taking into consideration the interim prayer, the order stated that the petitioner’s concern was prima facie genuine and supported by a notification dated 19.09.1987 issued by the chief secretary, which prohibits such appointments.
Therefore, order stated that “this court has no hesitation in directing the respondents not to make any recruitment in Grade-IV post of different trade in the police department without advertisement and from people who are not indigenous inhabitants of the state.”
It may be recalled that the police department had come under strident attacks from various quarters over the issue of excess/backdoor appointments. While ACAUT, Students’ Unions and Civil Society Groups attacked the department for excess/backdoor appointments, the nascent Nagaland Congress (NLC) had raised the issue of ‘non-local’ (non-indigenous) candidates cornering a big chunk of the jobs.
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