Nagaland RMSA 2016 batch pay dispute deepens as review petition awaits hearing in SC

The long-standing dispute over pay and service conditions of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) 2016 batch teachers in Nagaland has entered a fresh phase, with the State Government filing a review petition in the Supreme Court against an earlier directive granting scale pay to the aggrieved teachers.

The issue dates back to February 2016, when the Nagaland Education Mission Society (NEMS) engaged Graduate Teachers under RMSA on a contractual basis, with a fixed monthly salary of Rs 31,315. The appointments were co-terminus with the scheme, and teachers had signed bond and declaration affidavits before a magistrate.

In 2018–19, the Ministry of Education merged three flagship schemes—Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), RMSA, and Teacher Education (TE)—into Samagra Shiksha and simultaneously slashed the central financial support for teachers’ salaries from Rs 31,315 to Rs 25,000. The teachers, refusing to accept the revised package, approached the Guwahati High Court, Kohima Bench, which in May 2020 directed the government to maintain status quo.

Subsequently, the teachers sought scale pay, and in March 2022, the High Court directed the state government to grant them the pay band of Rs 9,300–34,800 with grade pay of Rs 4,200. The state challenged this in the Supreme Court through a Special Leave Petition (SLP), which was dismissed on May 20, 2025. The government has now filed a review petition on August 14, 2025, and a final judgment is awaited.

Meanwhile, with the Centre progressively reducing its share of salary funding by 5% annually under Samagra Shiksha, the support for 2025–26 has dropped to Rs 18,750, with the state government bearing 60% of the burden. This has compounded financial stress on the state exchequer.

In an effort to resolve the impasse, the State Mission Authority and the School Education Department held a series of meetings with the agitating teachers on September 2–3 and again on September 11. Officials appealed to the teachers to resume duties, stressing that it was the department’s constitutional right to seek judicial review and assuring that all demands would be considered once the Supreme Court delivered its verdict. However, the RMSA Teachers’ Association 2016 Batch has refused to call off their agitation, insisting on immediate implementation of the High Court’s order.

The deadlock continues, with the fate of nearly a decade-old dispute now resting on the Supreme Court’s final decision.