Important points:
The Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council, by virtue of the powers conferred under Act, 1953, is empowered to regulate the activities of the private Hospitals, if it is interfering in any way with the provisions of Act, 1953, and the Rules/Regulations made thereunder. It was by exercising the said power, Ext.P6 circular dated 29.12.2011 is issued, and stipulated that the decision taken by the Private Hospital Managements to insist one year experience for the appointment of staff nurses in Private Hospitals is against the provisions of the Nurses and Midwives Act, 1953, and decided to inform all institutions conducting Nursing Programmes that any person who has been registered with the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council as a Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife after prescribed course of study in an institution recognized by the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council and the Indian Nursing Council is eligible to practise as Staff Nurse in all kinds of healthcare settings in the State.

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 Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

4. The 2nd respondent has filed a statement, refuting the allegations and claims and demands raised by the petitioner. Among other contentions, it is stated that, six months internship is included in the B.Sc. Nursing Syllabus, and nursing is a practice based profession. Therefore, theoretical instructions and clinical practice is blended throughout the programme. The Nursing curriculum ensures preparation of nurses to assume responsibilities as professional, competent nurses and midwives in providing promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services. Further, the total hours of theory and practical sessions extended to the students of B.Sc. Nursing as per 2002 Syllabus of Mahatma Gandhi University and as per 2010 Syllabus of Kerala University of Health Sciences are as follows:

Mahatma Gandhi University, 2002 Syllabus
Year	Theory hours	Practical hours
I	800	640
II	465	1160
III	360	1280
IV	320	1320
Total	1945	4400

  

Kerala University of Health Sciences, 2010 Syllabus
Year	Theory hours	Practical hours	Library work/self study/Co-curriculum activities
I	890	495	295
II	410	1200	70
III	410	1225	45
IV