Gauhati High Court stays Nagaland Govt order mandating Govt employees of secretariat to get vaccinated for COVID to attend work

The Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court has stayed an order of the Nagaland government requiring State employees of Nagaland Civil Secretariat and Directorates to either be fully vaccinated or produce a Covid-19 negative test report every 15 days as a condition to attend work (Aniruddha Babar vs The State of Nagaland.).A Bench of Justices Songkhupchung Serto and S. Hukato Swu issued notice to the State government while observing that the order is prima facie violative of the employees’ rights under the Constitution of India..The Court was a hearing a plea filed by the employees of the Nagaland Civil Secretariat and Directorates aggrieved by an order dated 17 July passed by the Chief Secretary, Nagaland..The government order required all employees to either be fully vaccinated or produce a Covid-19 negative test report every 15 days. Moreover, it stated that the salaries payable to unvaccinated employees would be stopped on July 31 and they would be barred from attending office and their absence would be treated as leave without pay.The relevant portion of the order read:"1. All employees/staff in the Nagaland Civil Secretariat and Directorates will be required to be vaccinated to attend office, or to produce COVID-19 negative test report by getting tested every 15 days through either RT-PCR/TrueNat/CBNAAT on self payment basis as per Government approved rates.2. The salaries of those who have not taken a single dose of vaccine against COVID-19 or who have failed to furnish COVID-19 negative test report will be stopped beyond 31st July 2021 and they will not attend office. The period of absence of such employees will be treated as leave without pay.".The Division Bench observed that prima facie the order was not in consonance with other decisions of the High Court in Covid-19 cases and was violative of the employees’ Constitutional rights.“We are of the considered view that prima facie the order is not in consonance with the orders passed by this Court in the PIL (Suo Moto) 1/2021 and right of the employees under the Constitution of India,” the order said. .With this observation, the Court passed interim directions stating, “till the returnable date, fees should not be charged for testing from Government employees and their salaries should not be stopped for reason of not having being vaccinated.”.The Court also directed that a copy of the PIL be served to Advocate Taka Masa, the Amicus Curiae in the suo moto Covid-19 PIL..The matter has been listed for further hearing on 18 August along with the suo moto Covid-19 PIL..[Read Order]