Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has made it clear that no law can mandate a person to only work in the state where they received education, The Indian Express reported.
A single-judge bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj on February 7 directed the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council (KNMC) to register two nurses who secured nursing degrees from an institute in Mangaluru.
It all began when two women from Kerala submitted applications to the KNMC to register after securing BSc Nursing degrees from an institute in Mangaluru in 2023.
However, when the KNMC insisted on an Indian Nursing Council registration of the institute, the women approached the Karnataka High Court.
The counsel for the petitioners pointed out that the KNMC could not reject them because their college was recognized by the Karnataka State Nursing Council.
The counsel submitted citing the Supreme Court ruling that only the state councils and not the Indian Nursing Council can grant recognition hence there could not be any insistence on registration by the Indian Nursing Council.
The counsel stressed that any degree affiliated with respective state councils has to be recognised by all other states.
The high court after perusing the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947 stated that ‘….a State Nursing Council cannot insist on the need to furnish a certificate of registration/recognition from the Indian Nursing Council for the purposes of enrolment/registration to practice the profession of nursing in that state.’
Adding further, the court stated:’... what is to be seen is whether the State can restrict registration to students educated within its own territorial limits insofar as registration of nurses are concerned….No law can bind a person to a particular State, or mandate that a person can only work in the State where he or she has obtained his or her education. Narrow parochial views like these must be avoided…’
The judge, directing the KNMC to register the nurses, also made it clear that the Kerala council has done a ‘disservice’ to Kerala residents returning to the state after getting an education in Karnataka.