The Supreme Court has dismissed the Nagaland government’s review petition in the RMSA teachers’ pay case, upholding earlier orders in favour of the 2016 batch.
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KOHIMA — The Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition filed by Nagaland government seeking a reconsideration of its earlier order in favour of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) teachers’ batch of 2016.
Earlier, on May 20, 2025, the apex court had dismissed a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the state government challenging a March 2022 Gauhati High Court judgement, which directed the government to grant scale pay to RMSA teachers in the pay band of INR 9,300–INR 34,800 with grade pay of INR 4,200.
Subsequently, the state filed a review petition in August 2025 seeking a reconsideration of the order.
A bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice K Vinod Chandran, in its order dated January 15, 2026, dismissed the review petition and disposed of all pending applications connected with the matter.
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The court condoned the delay in filing the review petition and, after perusing the plea seeking review of its May 20, 2025 order, found no merit for reconsideration.
The application seeking oral hearing was also rejected.
Case background
A total of 367 teachers recruited under RMSA have been engaged in a prolonged legal battle with the state government over implementation of scale pay, as upheld by the Gauhati High Court in 2022.
The matter reached the Supreme Court in 2025 after the state government challenged the High Court order through an SLP, which was dismissed.
As per the Revised Pay (ROP) Rules, 2017, RMSA teachers are entitled to scale pay in the range of INR 9,300–INR 34,800 with grade pay of INR 4,200.
However, the teachers have continued to receive a fixed remuneration of INR 31,315 per month.
After nearly a month of demonstrations, the teachers kept the agitation in abeyance following assurances from the state government that the issue would be resolved within a stipulated timeframe.