Point of Law: Nursing council- Intake of student for Nursing program - Court cannot sit in appeal over the report of the committee of the assessors.

JUDGMENT :

1. The Lisie College of Nursing through its Chief Executive has approached this Court with this writ petition being aggrieved by Ext.P19 and P20 orders issued by the Registrar, Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council (“KNMC” for short). By virtue of Exhibit P19 order, though the institution was accorded sanction for admitting students to the B.Sc. Nursing Programme for the academic year 2021-2022, the intake was limited to 40 seats. The reason which persuaded the KNMC to place an interdiction on the intake is that the Nursing institution lacks the required space. As against the requirement of a minimum of 3 acres for a running institution, they say that the petitioner possessed less than 50 cents. The fire fighting facilities are below par and the hostel is congested. The petitioner asserts otherwise and contends that this is just an arm twisting tactic by the KNMC at the instance of the Government. They say that an institution which has been running perfectly for decades is now brought to its knees for frivolous reasons. This is the controversy that requires to be resolved in this Writ Petition. Both sides have placed on record their pleadings.

2. For deciding the question the bare minimum facts are required to be stated:

It is the case of the petitioner that the Lisie College of Nursing is attached to the Lisie Hospital, Ernakulam, a multi-speciality hospital with a 750 bed capacity and they have been conducting the B.Sc. Nursing Course for decades. The infrastructure offered by the College and the quality of faculty is second to none. Initially, the institution had an approved intake of 50 seats for the B.Sc. Nursing Course. In 2011 and 2012, based on the application filed by the petitioner, sanction was accorded for M.Sc. Nursing and Post Basic B.Sc. Nursing courses with an intake of 18 and 30 seats respectively. In view of the above, by 2012, the petitioner was in a position to admit 98 students in various courses. This necessarily meant that the concerned authorities, namely, the Indian Nursing Council (INC) and the KNMC were satisfied with the facilities offered by the College.

3. In the year 2017, Ext.P1 application was filed by the petitioner before the Government and the INC seeking enhancement of intake from 50 to 150. An inspection was conducted and by Ext.P2 communication issued by the Principal Secretary, the request was rejected citing that the existing facilities in Obstetrics and Gynaecology/Paediatrics were not adequate and for other reasons. Later, on 27.1.2018, the petitioner is stated to have submitted an application for enhancement of intake for the year 2018-2019 before the KNMC as well as the Kerala University of Health Science (KUHS). In response, the KNMC issued Ext.P3 communication directing the petitioner to obtain NOC from the State Government.

4. The petitioner contends that later, by Ext.P4 order, the Government considered the application filed by the petitioner for enhancement and proceeded to enhance the B.Sc. Nursing seats from 50 to 70 with a rider that the petitioner shall discontinue the GNM Programme or reduce the number of General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) Course seats from 50 to 30 per year. The said direction was complied with and accordingly, the KNMC by Ext.P5 sanction order, accorded sanction to enhance the number of seats from 50 to 70 during the academic year 2019-2020, subject however to the guidelines issued by the Government as well as the University and the norms prescribed by the INC and the KNMC. The petitioner was also directed to obtain a separate order from the KNMC to admit the next batch of students during the academic year 2020-2021.

5. According to the petitioner, though Ext.P5 order was passed based on the inspection conducted on 4.9.2019, Ext.P6 communication was issued directing the petitioner to comply with the conditions stated therein before completing the admission process. Among other things, the petitioner was directed to maintain the laboratories adequately