Gauhati High Court grants higher pay band to 84 Nagaland teachers, but restricts arrears due to delayed legal action.
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DIMAPUR — The Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court has directed Nagaland government to grant the post-creation pay band of INR 9300–34800 with Grade Pay of INR 4200 per month to 84 graduate teachers, but held that they will receive actual monetary benefits only from June 26, 2025, the date on which they filed their writ petition.
Pronouncing a judgement on Friday, the court held that while the petitioners are similarly situated to another batch of teachers who had earlier secured the higher pay band, their delay of nearly seven years in approaching the court disentitled them from retrospective financial benefits.
It observed that although the general rule requires identically situated employees to be treated alike, this principle is “subject to well recognised exceptions in the form of laches and delays, as well as acquiescence.”
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It noted that employees who do not challenge an alleged wrongful action for a prolonged period and approach the court only after others have succeeded may be treated as “fence-sitters,” and such delay can justify denial of retrospective benefits.
The petitioners had been appointed as Graduate Teachers on fixed pay against posts created with a pay band of INR 9300–34800 and Grade Pay of INR 4200. They approached the court in 2025 seeking the same benefit that had earlier been granted to 435 similarly placed teachers.
According to the order, the petitioners were aware since 2018 that their posts had been sanctioned with the higher pay band but did not make any claim at that time. Nearly seven years passed before they approached the court, after the earlier batch of teachers had succeeded.
It held that this showed “their acquiescence to their appointments on contract basis and the fixed pay received by them,” and thus, declined to grant the benefit of the post-creation pay band for the period prior to the filing of the writ petition.
Accordingly, the court directed the state respondents to grant the post-creation pay band notionally from the date the earlier batch of teachers are to be given the same, but ordered that “actual payment of the pay scale” shall be made only with effect from June 26, 2025.