The Hindu : Karnataka News : Order in favour of nursing college upheld

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 19, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Order in favour of nursing college upheld

Staff Reporter

`INC nod not a must for approved colleges'

BANGALORE: A Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court has endorsed the view of a single judge that it is not obligatory for nursing colleges to obtain recognition or approval from the Indian Nursing Council (INC) if they have been recognised by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) or under the Karnataka Nurses Act.

A Division Bench comprising Justice P. Vishwanath Shetty and Justice H.G. Ramesh upheld the order of a single judge allowing a petition by the KJM College of Nursing, Indiranagar, Bangalore, and rejected an appeal against the order by the Union of India (Department of Health) and the Indian Nursing Council.

The appellants had questioned the correctness of the February 5, 2005 order by a single judge, who had quashed a communication from the RGUHS to the college asking it to obtain INC recognition within a month.

12-year-old institution

The college, which was established in 1993, was initially affiliated to Bangalore University. It was later affiliated to the RGUHS with a sanctioned intake of 60. The RGUHS wrote to the college not to admit students for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 till it obtained permission from the INC. The college filed a petition challenging the authority of the INC to recognise or derecognise an institution.

The single judge allowed the petition. However, he gave liberty to the RGUHS to act in accordance with the law after receiving a report from the INC. Both the Union of India and the INC appealed against the order.

The Division Bench upheld the order of the single judge and said the only consideration before it was to decide whether the college was required to obtain recognition from the INC. It said there was no such obligation on an institution already established, which has secured recognition under the provisions of the Karnataka Nurses Act and the Rajiv Gandhi University Act.

Moreover, Section 14 of the INC Act could not be understood to mean powers have been conferred on the INC to withdraw recognition already granted to an institution.

The Bench pointed out that the institution had obtained approval and recognition under a State Act and from the RGUHS, and the approval had not been withdrawn.

It said it did not find any infirmity in the order of the single judge and dismissed the appeal as devoid of merit.

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