Shillong, July 8: The Meghalaya High Court has directed restoration of the original appointments of four individuals who were appointed to various posts at the North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) but were later reverted to their original positions due to a decision by the Governing Council.

In its judgment passed on Tuesday, the division bench comprising Chief Justice IP Mukerji and Justice W Diengdoh said, “For all those reasons, I could go even further than the ultimate order passed by the learned single judge and direct reversal of the cancellation of the orders of appointment of the respondents as if they were non est. The respondents are restored to their original appointment by the Director General without any interruption by cancellation . They shall be entitled to pay, allowances and all benefits without any interruption. The appeals are dismissed. The writ petitions are disposed of by affirming the order of the learned single judge together with the modifications and directions made by us above.”

“More importantly, the appointees had treated the Director General as acting under ostensible authority. There was no reason to doubt the authenticity of a letter of appointment duly signed by the Director General under the seal of NECTAR. The appointees had every reason to believe that the appointments were legally made through an authorised person. Any dispute in the Department with regard to the authority of the Director General was internecine and the appointees cannot and should not have been made victims of it,” it added.

The appointments of the four individuals – Rakesh Kumar Sarmah (Chief Coordinator (Technical), Simanta Das (Chief Radio Technologist), Simon Phukan (Senior Administrative Officer) and Ankit Shrivastava (Software Engineer) were made in 2021, and the candidates had joined their respective posts and were drawing pay and allowances.

However, in October 2022, the Director General of NECTAR cancelled the appointments, citing a directive from the Governing Council to scrap the recruitment process and initiate it afresh.

The court held that the cancellation of appointments was arbitrary and irregular, and that the Director General had sufficient authority to make the appointments.

The court also noted that the Governing Council’s decision to cancel the appointments was at the behest of the Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, and was not a valid exercise of power.

The court held that the Director General had sufficient authority to make the appointments, and that the appointments were made through a valid selection process.

The court found that the cancellation of appointments was arbitrary and irregular, and that the Governing Council’s decision was not a valid exercise of power.

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