The Meghalaya High Court has restored the appointment of three scientists and one senior administrative officer of North East Centre for Technology Application and Research (NECTAR) which had earlier been scrapped by the director general of NECTAR in October 2022.
A division bench of Chief Justice Indra Prasanna Mukerji and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh in a verdict passed today also upheld the order of the single judge of the High Court which justified the appointments.
“The appointments had every feature of legitimacy and validity,” the court ruled.
The court said it is “unfortunate” that the governing council “engineered” the cancellation of the appointments at the “whim and caprice” of the secretary of the Department of Science and Technology that has jeopardised the career of the aspiring scientists.
The court said the selection of the candidates was made by a selection committee approved by the chairman of NECTAR in February, 2022. While the governing council had also approved the appointment, the secretary of the Department of Science and Technology desired the appointments to be placed before him.
“The Governing Council at the instigation of the Secretary should not have turned around at the 9th meeting and cancelled the appointments. The purported exercise of power by the Secretary and the Governing Council was totally irregular and arbitrary, the court said.
The High Court said, “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”.
Pointing out that the order passed by the single judge stands, the High Court said, “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 single judge in an April 5, 2024 order remarked, “The cancellation of appointments was in breach of the principles of natural justice” and that the appointments were neither illegal nor irregular as it was done in accordance with the rules.
