Meghalaya HC reinstates 4 dismissed NECTAR scientists

The Meghalaya High Court has reinstated four scientists whose appointments at the North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) were arbitrarily cancelled in 2022, declaring the dismissals legally void.

The court ordered full restoration of their jobs along with back pay, allowances, and service benefits in a judgement issued on Tuesday, 9 July.

Chief justice I.P. Mukerji, with justice W. Diengdoh concurring, remarked that the entire cancellation exercise was done "at the whim and caprice of the secretary."

The four scientists - Ankit Shrivastava, Simon Phukan, Simanta Das, and Rakesh Kumar Sarmah - were selected through a valid recruitment process in November 2021, with prior approval from NECTAR's Executive Committee and Governing Council.

However, their appointments were abruptly cancelled during the 9th Governing Council meeting in August 2022, allegedly due to objections from the Department of Science and Technology secretary.

The court found the cancellations unfair, saying 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 judgment also noted the personal impact on the scientists, many of whom had quit earlier jobs to join NECTAR, and reaffirmed the importance of due process and institutional autonomy.