The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and Delhi government to respond to a plea challenging a rule that allows only female candidates to apply for admission to B.Sc (Honours) Nursing courses offered by AIIMS, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, and Delhi University.
The court granted the government, institutes, and the Indian Nursing Council a period of four weeks to respond to the plea filed by the Indian Professional Nurses Association (IPNA).
The IPNA, a non-governmental registered body working for the welfare of nurses across India, said that the admission process “does not consider present-day realities.”
Advocate Robin Raju, who appeared for the IPNA, said that denying non-females the opportunity to study the course in Delhi’s premier and affordable nursing colleges was “arbitrary” and “against the principles of democracy, fairness and equality”. The plea also underlined the possibility of male and third-gender candidates facing discrimination during the admission process.
The plea added that gender-based eligibility ignores the dearth of nursing professionals in the country, stating that “hence, prohibiting non-female candidates from getting admission to the B.Sc (Honours) Nursing course is also against the interest of the public at large”.
The court listed the case for further hearing for February next year.
