The court upheld the constitutionality of gender-based reservation in nursing courses, establishing that such discrimination is permissible under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, aimed at empowering women.

1.This writ petition has been preferred by a male Staff Nurse of Government Medical College Hospital, Kilpauk, Chennai praying for a writ of declaration to declare Clause 4(vii) of the prospectus issued by the second respondent for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing for the academic year 2007-2008 as illegal and ultra vires of Art.14 and Art.15 of the Constitution of India and inconsistent with the provisions of the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947 .

2. The factual matrix necessary for the disposal of the writ petition are as under :
(a) The petitioner is a male nurse qualified with Diploma in General Nursing and Psychiatry and is working as a staff nurse in Government Medical College Hospital, Kilpauk, Chennai, since 2005. He is qualified for admission to degree course of Bachelor of Science in Nursing offered as per the prospectus issued for the year 2007-2008 by the second respondent. However he is aggrieved by the rule of reservation in favour of women at 90% and the limited seats earmarked for male nurses.
(b) It was the contention of the petitioner in the writ petition that up to the year 2003-2004 selection was made on the basis of merit and seniority alone. Similarly for appointment to the service of State Government, initially a ratio was fixed between male and female and in the year 2001, the State Government as per G.O.Ms. No. 251 dated 18-9-2001 abolished the ratio and thereafter appointments were made strictly as per seniority from the waiting list maintained by the concerned employment exchange and no discrimination was made between male and female nurses.
(c) It was the further case of the petitioner that the impugned clause No. 4 (vii) is a clear case of discrimination and the State Government is not having any such power to make reservation in favour of women and as such the same is violative of Art.14 and Art.15 of the Constitution of India . It was further indicated that as per the age limit fixed in the prospectus a candidate should not have completed 40 years but however the maximum number of seats are only 30 for each academic year for the post of Bachelor of Science in Nursing and as such women candidates gets unfair advantage over male candidates and the said ratio, having no reasonable nexus is discriminatory and as such the petitioner has sought for declaring the same as ultra vires and unconstitutional.

3. In the counter affidavit filed by the second respondent it was indicated that as per the policy decision of the Government of Tamil Nadu for selection to Diploma course in Nursing as well as for B.Sc. Nursing course, Government have prescribed the ratio of 1: 9 between men and women. It was further stated that services of male nurses are utilised in the Government Hospitals mainly in Orthopaedics wards, Psychiatry wards and Medico Legal Cases and except for those hard nature of cases, the women nurses are made use of in all the hospitals throughout the world. It was also the contention of the second respondent that majority of nursing works are rendered in the Hospitals by women nurses alone. For paediatric nursing and for nursing of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, female nurses are always preferred and this group form a considerable portion of the population. Similarly, services of female nurses are preferred for adolescent patients of both sexes and about 90% of patients are served by female nurses and their services are used in the wards of the hospitals such as casualty, labour, medical, surgical besides in operation theatres and post operative wards, blood bank and paediatric wards, neuro cardiology wards, surgery wards, etc., and the male nurses are utilised only i