IMPHAL, India, April 26 -- Manipur High Court issued the following order on March 26:

[1] Read this in conjunction with and in continuation of earlier proceedings made in the previous listing on 19.02.2026 which reads as follows:

' [a] Captioned main Writ Appeal (WA) is an intra-court appeal and it is directed against an order dated 20.01.2025 made by a Hon'ble Single Judge in WP(C)No. 167 of 2023 along with MC(WP(C))No. 180 of 2023 thereat ('impugned order' for the sake of convenience).

[b] Mr. N. Nongdamba, learned counsel led by senior counsel and Deputy Solicitor General of India (DSGI) is before us on behalf of appellants (to be noted, the four appellants shall be collectively referred to as 'State' for the sake of convenience). There were 29 (twenty nine) writ petitioners before the Hon'ble Single Bench qua the impugned order, they have been arrayed as R1 to R29 in captioned WA and miscellaneous case (MC) thereat. Private respondents R5 to R7 before the Hon'ble Single Bench have been arrayed as R30 to R32 respectively in the captioned WA and MC thereat.

[c] As regards the respondents, Mr. Ng. Jotindra Luwang, learned counsel and Ms. Geetarani Waikhom, learned counsel have lodged caveat on behalf of R1 to R8, R10 to R16, R18 to R21, R23 to R25 and R27 to R29 (25 caveators in all). To be noted, Mr. Ng. Jotindra Luwang, learned counsel is before us on the Video Conferencing (VC) platform and Ms. Geetarani Waikhom, learned counsel is before us in the physical Court.

[d] As regards the main WA, the subject matter is Army recruitment under Agnipath Scheme for which selection process was conducted from 23.11.2022 to 05.12.2022 in all districts in the State of Manipur. Unsuccessful aspirants (29 in number) filed afore-referred writ petition being WP(C) No.167 of 2023 inter-alia seeking a direction for their appointment. After full contest, a Hon'ble Single Bench in and vide impugned order directed State to appoint some of the writ petitioners and directed completion of 'whole process' of examination with regard to some other writ petitioners within a period of 2(two) months. Aggrieved, State is on appeal. Learned senior advocate and DSGI, adverting to the impugned order submitted that the impugned order proceeds on the basis that assumption of writ petitioners that all National Cadet Corps (NCC) certificate holders are assured of selection in Indian Army but such assumption of writ petitioners is incorrect. It was also pointed out that recruitment system in Army is very different from recruitment qua civilians particularly regarding requirement shortfalls of the forces formations etc., and this has been overlooked in the impugned order is the further say of learned DSGI.

[e] Issue notice to respondents.

[f] Mr. Ng. Jotindra Luwang, learned counsel on the VC platform and Ms. Geetarani Waikhom, learned counsel in the physical Court accept notice for R1 to R8, R10 to R16, R18 to R21, R23 to R25 and R27 to R29.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=A9S7c5LDIsB6RXaCf816x%2B8KvCItZP6n5Yiz3Nzen6zY%2FUZzX9F6w%2BSZi3W28wlx&caseno=WA/42/2025&cCode=1&cino=MNHC010009842025&state_code=25&appFlag=)

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