SRIMATI KANCHAN KUMARI Vs. BIHAR NURSES REGISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in this application seeks quashing of an order dated September 28, 1996 (Annexure 15) by which respondent no.5 has been given appointment on the post of Registrar, Bihar Nurses Registration Council following a recommendation made in her favour by the Council in its meeting held on September 10, 1996. The impugned appointment is being made on the basis of an advertisement issued in the daily 'The Times of India' of 4.7.96 (annexure 6) with its corrigendum issued on 9.7.96 (annexure 7). The petitioner was herself a candidate in response to the advertisement but it is her grievance that respondent no.5 was selected and appointed disregarding the superior claim of the petitioner.

(2.) MR . Mihir Kumar Jha, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner assailed the selection and appointment of respondent no.5 on a number of grounds. It is not needed, however, to discuss all of them here or even to enumerate them as, in my opinion, this writ petition is fit to succeed on a very short point regarding the eligibility of respondent no.5 for being appointed as the Registrar of the Bihar Nurses Registration Council. Mr. Jha submitted that respondent no.5 did not fulfil the eligibility criterion as required under regulation 3 (iii) and hence her appointment was bad and unsustainable in law.

(3.) AT this stage, it may be noted that on April 1, 1992 the State Government framed the Bihar Nurses Registration Council (Appointment and Conditions of Service of Registrar) Regulation in exercise of powers under Section 8(1) of the Bihar Nurses Registration Act, 1985. Regulation 3. laid down the criteria regarding eligibility and qualification of the Registrar and sub -regulation (iii) provided that the Registrar shall be a registered Nurse/registered Mid -wife. It may further be noted that though the word 'registered' in not defined under regulation 2 containing the definition clauses but it provided that all other expressions not defined therein would have the same meaning as in the Act itself. From a perusal of the Act, it appears that the word 'Registered' is a defined expression and Section 2(i) of the Act defines the word as follows : "Registered" means registered in accordance with the provisions of Section 10."