SRI RAMAKRISHNA SARADA SCHOOL OF NURSING SRI RAMAKRISHNA ASHRAMA CHARITABLE HOSPITAL, SASTHAMANGALAM Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in W.P.(C)No.33806 of 2025 filed this writ appeal under Sec. 5(i) of the Kerala High Court Act, 1958, challenging the judgment dtd. 17/12/2025 passed by the learned Single Judge, whereby W.P.(C)No.33806 of 2025 and W.P.(C)No.40066 of 2025 filed by another college of nursing were dismissed.

(2.) Going by the averments in W.P.(C)No.33806 of 2025, the appellant has been offering the General Nursing and Midwifery ('GNM' for short) Course for several years. On 28/2/2019, the 3rd respondent, Indian Nursing Council ('INC' for short), issued Ext.P1 notification in tune with the National Health Policy, 2017, that there should be a single entry level for nursing, resolving that the existing GNM Course shall be phased out by the year 2020-2021 and shall be converted into College of Nursing. The said notification was issued to ensure the quality of nursing education; the implementation framework seeks to merge GNM schools with B.Sc. Nursing and have a single entry-level qualification as B.Sc. Nursing for nurses by redesigning the B.Sc. curriculum as practical based and by phasing away the GNM course. By Ext.P3 letter dtd. 19/9/2019, the 3rd respondent requested the State Government/State Nursing Council to ensure that no new GNM School of Nursing shall be approved from the academic year 2019-20 and no inspection of GNM School of Nursing shall be conducted for the purpose of renewal/restart/enhancement of seats etc. The appellant then sent a letter dtd. 2/12/2019 to the 3rd respondent requesting reconsideration of discontinuing GNM course, as the course helps many poor girl candidates studying under the appellant institution to lead a good life. To that request, the 3rd respondent sent Ext.P4 reply dtd. 24/12/2019 stating that the decision to discontinue the GNM course is final and that offering B.Sc. Nursing is the only alternative as it is part of the National Health Policy. In the meantime, in the year 2020, the entire country underwent the COVID-19 pandemic, and there was a shortfall of medical professionals and nurses. Therefore, the National Health Policy underwent severe changes, and the decision to discontinue the GNM course was rolled back, and the permissions were granted by all States to start GNM courses.

(3.) After the filing of the writ petition, along with I.A.Nos.1, 3 and 5 of 2025, the appellant has produced Exts.P19 to P23 documents. On behalf of the 3rd respondent, a statement dtd. 26/11/2025 was filed in the writ petition opposing the reliefs sought for and producing therewith Annexures R3(1) to R3(4) documents. Paragraphs 5 to 13 of that statement read thus: