G PARIMELAZHAGAN Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition has been preferred by a male Staff Nurse of Government medical College Hospital, Kilpauk, chennai praying for a writ of declaration to declare Clause 4 (vii) of the prospectus issued by the second respondent for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing for the academic year 2007-2008 as illegal and ultra vires of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India and inconsistent with the provisions of the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947.

(2.) THE factual matrix necessary for the disposal of the writ petition are as under :

(3.) IN the counter affidavit filed by the second respondent it was indicated that as per the policy decision of the Government of Tamil Nadu for selection to Diploma course in Nursing as well as for B. Sc. Nursing course, government have prescribed the ratio of 1:9 between men and women. It was further stated that services of male nurses are utilised in the Government Hospitals mainly in Orthopaedics wards, Psychiatry wards and Medico Legal Cases and except for those hard nature of cases, the women nurses are made use of in all the hospitals throughout the world. It was also the contention of the second respondent that majority of nursing works are rendered in the hospitals by women nurses alone. For paediatric nursing and for nursing of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, female nurses are always preferred and this group form a considerable portion of the population. Similarly, services of female nurses are preferred for adolescent patients of both sexes and about 90% of patients are served by female nurses and their services are used in the wards of the hospitals such as casualty, labour, medical, surgical besides in operation theatres and post operative wards, blood bank and paediatric wards, neuro cardiology wards, surgery wards, etc. , and the male nurses are utilised only in few departments. Moreover about 90% of the candidates who apply for Diploma course in Nursing as well as B. Sc. Nursing are female candidates and the Government took all these factors into consideration for making reservation for women at 90% and the remaining seats were earmarked for men. In short, the second respondent relied on the policy decision taken by the Government of Tamil Nadu as the basis for reservation and accordingly prayed for dismissal of the writ petition.