Dimapur, Sep. 23 (EMN): The Nagaland NET Qualified Forum (NNQF) has submitted a representation to the minister Higher Education, Temjen Imna Along, requesting him to reconsider the alleged move to regularise the contractual assistant professors.
The forum stated that many eligible candidates are dismayed by the reports about mention being made in the recently concluded session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly that “154 contractual assistant professor posts are in the process of regularisation”.
Claiming that the aspirants have been deprived of the “right to equal opportunity and free-fair competition”, it said the decision show that ‘the system rewards those with the ability to get into the higher education system of Nagaland without going through the proper channel like the Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) and Common Educational Service Examination (CESE), or via public advertisement, and at the same time are able to retain themselves in a particular job over the years’.
It said appointments on contractual basis had been banned via an office memorandum in 2016 and the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench, had also ruled in connection with a case filed by ACAUT and PSAN that ‘any appointment without advertisement and the regularisation of (such posts) is unconstitutional and null and void’. Citing this, it alleged the government’s latest move “will only be a reflection of disrespect to the existing law and a further violation of the rights of aspirants and equality”.
The forum went on to clarify that the court had dismissed its writ petition filed in 2019 against the backdoor/irregular/contractual appointments in the various departments of Higher Education “not on merit but on the basis of technicalities” and it was given the liberty to file a case again through an appropriate writ petition.
Maintaining that it will be misleading for the respondents to claim of winning the case, it said its latest representation is an appeal to abstain from appointments and regularization on the pretext of the dismissal of the previous petition.
The NNQF went on to say that it would support the idea of age relaxation for the contractual employees so that they can also take part in the “free-fair competition through direct recruitment, NPSC, CESE, along with all other aspirants who have been and are still waiting”.