Office Notes,

reports, orders or proceedings

S N L o . .

Date or directions COURT’S OR JUDGE’S ORDERS

and Registrar’s

order with Signatures

WPSS 2227/ 2024

Hon’ble Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J.

Mr. Vinay Kumar, Advocate, for the

petitioner.

Mr. Ganesh Datt Kandpal, Deputy

AG, for the State.

Mr. Rakshit Srivastava, Advocate,

i/b Mr. Ramji Srivastava, Advocate for the

respondent no. 3.

Mr. Atul Bahuguna, Advocate, for

the respondent no. 4.

(2) Petitioner responded to an advertisement dated 11.3.2024, issued by Uttarakhand Medical Service Selection Board inviting applications for the post of Nursing Officer, Male/Female. One of the conditions mentioned in the advertisement at clause 6 was that every candidate must be registered with Uttarakhand Nurses and Midwives Council. Petitioner responded to the said advertisement and she participated in the selection process, but during document verification, it was found that validity period of petitioner’s registration with Uttarakhand Nurses and Midwives Council expired on 23.4.2020. On this ground alone, petitioner was declared to be ineligible. Thus feeling aggrieved, petitioner has approached this

Court.

(3) Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner passed Diploma in Nursing Course from Pannadhai Ma Subharathi Nursing College, Meerut in the year 2014 and she got herself registered with Uttarakhand Nurses and Midwives Council on 24.4.2015; in the registration certificate, there was nothing to indicate that registration would be valid only for five years

and she was informed that her registration had expired only during document verification done by the selecting body. He further submits that petitioner thereafter applied for renewal of her registration on 27.6.2024 and her registration was renewed by the Council on the same day.

(4) Per contra, learned State Counsel submits that, as per the advertisement, every candidate must have valid registration with Uttarakhand Nurses and Midwives Council on the last day of submission of application; the validity of petitioner’s registration expired much earlier on 23.4.2020, therefore it shall be deemed that on the last date of submission of application, petitioner was not registered with Uttarakhand Nurses and Midwives Council and thus was ineligible for appointment.

(5) Learned Counsel for the petitioner, however, submits that since the registration certificate possessed by the petitioner does not contain any stipulation regarding its validity period and, earlier, the registration once made with the Council was to remain valid during the lifetime of the concerned candidate and the condition regarding validity period of five years was subsequently introduced in 2019. Learned Counsel thus submits that the restriction regarding validity period, introduced in 2019, cannot have any application to the registration made in 2014 or any date before enforcement of that condition. Even otherwise, he submits that once the registration certificate is renewed, even though after the last date of submission of application, then that will relate back to the date of registration of the concerned candidate with the Uttarakhand Nurses and Midwives Council and, therefore, rejection of petitioner’s candidature is unjust and illegal.