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A PIL was filed before the Delhi HC by Indian Professional Nurses Association challenging the provisions of the Military Nursing Service Ordinance, 1943 and the Military Nursing Service (India) Rules, 1944, as the Ordinance as well as the Rules provide only for appointment of women. The Union of India and the Ministry of Defense, Government of India have been impleaded as Respondents.
The petition states that the impugned Ordinance and Rules is patently discriminatory and illegal treatment is being meted out to the male nurses in India by the unconstitutional and illegal practice within the military of having a military nursing service constituting a women-only cadre. The impugned Ordinance and the Rules also perpetuate the stigmatization and ostracism of male nurses, by singling them out and making them feel unwanted. Further, the eligibility criteria as contained in the Ordinance and the Rules are also not founded in any intelligible differentia and bear no rational nexus to the objects sought to be achieved, thereby violating the right to equality before the law under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The impugned provisions additionally violate the right to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India. The restrictions that the impugned provisions impose on these rights are not reasonable restrictions in the interests of the male nurses. Such an arbitrary exclusion is unfair, degrading and denies the right to live with dignity and respect to the male nurses.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued a notice to the Ministry of Defence seeking to know its stand by October 10. “It is very antiquated, very stereotyped. How can you have an entire nursing branch without any males, especially in the Army,” the bench observed.
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