KERALA PRIVATE HOSPITALS ASSOCIATION Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is filed by the petitioner Association seeking to quash Exts.P2, P3, P4 and P6 orders passed by the State Government, University of Kerala, University of Calicut and the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council respectively, exempting nursing students admitted on or after 2007 from doing internship. Brief material facts for the disposal of the writ petition are as follows:

(2.) Petitioner is an Association of Institutions which runs Hospitals in the Private Sector. It is challenging the validity of Ext.P2 order issued by the Government of Kerala, by which the internship of one year prescribed for nursing students was abolished. It is the case of the petitioner that, there is no law which authorises the Government to issue an order like Ext.P2. That apart, the Government further directed the Universities to change the syllabus accordingly, and the University of Kerala and the University of Calicut have issued Exts.P3 and P4 orders, implementing the said direction, and thereby abolishing internship. It is also pointed out that, Exts.P3 and P4 orders are bad, since they are issued on the basis of the direction issued by the State Government and without having an independent assessment. It is also an interference with the jurisdiction enjoyed by the Universities constituted under the respective University Acts.

(3.) So much so, it is submitted that, as a result of the abolition of internship, the hospitals would be forced to employ nurses without any kind of practical experience. In the circumstances, petitioner passed a resolution resolving that only persons having one year's experience would be recruited by the members of the petitioner association. But, then the 2nd respondent, i.e., the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council interferes with the matter and vetoed the said decision holding that any person who has a degree in Nursing is entitled to be appointed as Nurse, as per Ext.P6 order. Therefore, according to the petitioner, the nurses who come out of nursing colleges without any practical experience will have to be directly employed as regular nurses, and therefore, the orders specified above suffers from the vice of arbitrariness and illegality susceptible to be interfered with by this Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India.