Point of Law: Prescription of essential qualification by way of experience may cause some hardship in their application in some cases, but on that ground, impugned condition in Rules of 2013 cannot be struck down as arbitrary or unreasonable, particularly when it is not violative of Articles 14 & 16 of Constitution of India.

ORDER :

Sanjay K. Agrawal, J

1. The petitioners herein call in question the constitutional validity of Condition No.3(i), Column 5, Entry 1 of Nursing Service under Schedule-III enacted under Rule 8 of the Chhattisgarh Health and Family Welfare Department Non-ministerial Para-Medical and Nursing (Directorate Health Services) Class-III Service Recruitment Rules, 2013 (for short, ‘the Rules of 2013’) as amended vide notification dated 11-6-2020, prescribing minimum experience of 5 years for Mitanins to be eligible for recruitment under limited direct recruitment to the post of Staff Nurse, and also consequently seek to challenge clause 3(1) of the advertisement dated 24-5-2021, whereby 5 years experience has been sought for in respect of Mitanins for enabling them to participate in the limited direct recruitment process for the post of Staff Nurse.

Factual Backdrop:

2. The petitioners, who were appointed and working as Mitanins based on the 17th Stage Mitanin Training conducted by the State Health Resource Centre, have undergone the course training for General Nurse Midwifery (GNM) under a government scheme which was fully sponsored and catered to by the State Government. The petitioners have also been sent for 6 months internship at District Hospitals and were registered with the Chhattisgarh Nurses Registration Council, Raipur and as such, they are trained GNMs and qualified to be appointed as Staff Nurse.

3. In exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India, the Rules of 2013 have been framed which were subject matter of amendment by notification dated 11-6-2020 by which in Schedule-II, Nursing Service Cadre has been included in which the post of Staff Nurse has been placed and by virtue of Rule 6(1)(a) of the Rules of 2013, 80% of posts have to be filled up by direct recruitment and 20% of posts have to be filled-up by promotion. The rule further provides that 75% posts out of 80% posts of direct recruitment shall be filled on the basis of open competition and 5% posts shall be filled from GNM or B.Sc. (Nursing) Trainees Mitanins through limited departmental examination. Similarly, in Schedule-III enacted under Rule 8 of the Rules of 2013, qualifications have been prescribed for the post of Staff Nurse in which one of the qualifications for limited direct recruitment of Mitanins is that the candidate should have worked as Mitanin continuously/uninterrupted for a period of 5 years which has been sought to be challenged in this writ petition as arbitrary, unconstitutional and violative of Part-III of the Constitution of India and further prescription of 5 years minimum experience for the said post of Staff Nurse is a hostile discrimination and therefore, it is liable to be declared unconstitutional.

4. It is the case of the petitioners that the petitioners, who were qualified GNMs, are otherwise entitled for the post of Staff Nurse. Under Schedule-III of the amended Rules, experience of 5 years as Mitanin has been prescribed as additional qualification for appearing in the limited departmental examination which is arbitrary, as the minimum qualification prescribed for direct recruitment is that a candidate should have passed B.Sc. (Nursing) or P.B.B.Sc. (Nursing) or General Nursing and passed Senior Midwifery Training and should be registered with the Chhattisgarh Nursing Council as Nurse, and there is no additional requirement of any experience appended to direct recruitment for the post of Staff Nurse. Even a Mitanin who has undergone the GNM course is, even otherwise, eligible for being selected and fulfills all the requisite qualifications for the post of Staff Nurse. Thus, the additional qualification prescribed as mandatory qualification for participation of Mitanins in the limited direct recruitment is over and above the qualifications thus required for open competition is wholly arbi