State council can't ask nurses to get INC certificates: Karnataka HC

Bengaluru: A State Nursing Council cannot insist on the certificate of registration/recognition from the Indian Nursing Council (INC) for enrolment/registration to practice the profession of nursing in that state, the Karnataka high court has said in a recent judgement.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj said this while directing the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council to register the petitioners and any other graduate holding a degree in nursing, to enable them to practice the profession of nursing in the state of Kerala.

The petitioners Daniya Joy and Neethu Baby, residents of Kasaragod district in Kerala, had studied BSc (Nursing) at New RK College of Nursing, Mangaluru. They filed an application with the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council seeking registration of their practice in the profession of nursing.

In April 2024, they received an email calling upon them to submit their INC registration/affiliation of the Nursing Institution from where they had completed their education. The petitioners said that even the college had intervened saying that no such INC registration is required for registration.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj noted that no recognition is required to be obtained from the INC, nor is there any registration contemplated under the Nursing Council of India Act, for any college rendering education in nursing. The court said that the qualifications fixed by the Indian Nursing Council does not, in any manner, amount to registration or recognition by the Indian Nursing Council.

“In the present case,  the petitioners having successfully completed their education in BSc Nursing, and having been conferred with such a degree as BSc Nursing, an application made by them to Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council ought to have been considered and their registration should have been processed favourably. A State or State Nursing Council cannot seek to deny registration of a graduate in BSc nursing on the ground that the said student has not graduated from a college within the State,” Justice Suraj Govindaraj said.

The court further said, “The Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council cannot insist on the grant of any recognition from the ‘Indian Nursing Council’, suitability or otherwise, in respect of the college nor is there any requirement for a graduate of nursing to have registered under any other state council, before seeking for  registration in the state of Kerala.”