Higher qualifications like GNM/B.Sc. Nursing do not equate to specific ANM requirement for Health Worker posts; employer prescribes suitability, courts cannot interfere by equating or rewriting eligibility unless arbitrary.

JUDGMENT :

NANDESH S. DESHPANDE, J.

1. Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Heard finally with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties.

2. All these writ petitions raise identical challenges and therefore are being decided by this common judgment. As far as Writ Petition No. 6482 of 2024 is concerned, (which we have treated as the lead petition vide order dated 21.01.2026), it prays for quashing and setting aside the communication dated 30.09.2024. It further prays for a writ, thereby directing the respondent no. 4 herein to correct the list published on 07.10.2024, as also declaring and including the names of the petitioners as eligible and qualified candidates and issuing appointment orders to the petitioners.

3. The facts can be narrated in a short compass are as under:-

(a) The respondent no. 4, which is the Zilla Parishad, Nagpur, published an Advertisement No. 01 of 2023 concerning the direct recruitment process for Group C for various posts coming under the said group, and applications were invited for those posts. The applications, which were to be filed online, included 308 posts for Nurse/Health Worker (Female). The requisite qualification for the said posts is a qualified nurse and who are registered with the Maharashtra Nursing Council or Vidarbha Nursing Council.

(b) It is the contention of the petitioners that some of the petitioners are qualified as General and Nursing Midwife (herein after referred to as ‘GNM’) and the remaining hold qualification as B.Sc. (Nursing). But all these petitioners are registered with the Maharashtra Nursing Council.

(c) Pursuant to the said advertisement, all the petitioners applied for the said post by submitting their respective applications by online mode. It is the contention of the petitioners that the online portal specifically gave options in the qualification, either the “Qualified Midwifes” or “Qualified Auxiliary Nurse Midwives”.

(d) After submission of the said forms, the same were accepted and exam was conducted on 16.06.2024 in which the petitioners appeared. The petitioners were declared qualified in the result which was declared on 17.07.2024. On the same day, a list was published by the respondent no. 4 according to which 364 candidates were declared as qualified and the names of all the petitioners were included.

(e) It is further contended that all the candidates including the petitioners were called for verification of their respective documents from 7^th to 10^th of August, 2024.

(f) The documents of all the petitioners were verified and a list was published on the website of the respondent no. 4 wherein the candidates having qualification of Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (herein after referred to as ‘ANM’) were declared qualified and names of 16 ANM candidates was kept in the waiting list. In the said list, the name of the petitioners and other similarly situated candidates having qualification of GNM and B.Sc. (nursing) were not included though all these candidates cleared the exams and were declared as qualified.

(g) Being aggrieved by this, the petitioners approached the respondent no. 4 on 09.10.2024 to know the reasons of their exclusion from the list. Upon enquiry, the petitioners were given a copy of letter dated 30.09.2024 which was addressed to the respondent no. 4 by the respondent no. 2