Nurse’s application for review of court order dismissed

“Mere certificate verification did not confer any right to be appointed’’

The Madras High Court has dismissed at the admission stage itself applications by a person who underwent training as a nurse in a government institution seeking to review a court order of January this year.

On January 8, a Division Bench upheld the validity of a GO of January 18, 2012 of the Health and Family Welfare Department by which a decision was taken that in future all vacant posts of nurses in government medical institutions should be filled from among nurses trained in both government and private nursing institutions. One P. Karuppasamy filed applications seeking to review the Bench’s order. Mr. Karuppsamy’s case was that he along with 1860 candidates was called for certificate verification for appointment as staff nurse in government hospitals. The verification was done in February and April 2011.

Thereafter, the posting orders were issued to 969 candidates. When posting orders were about to be issued for the remaining 892, which included himself, State Assembly elections were notified.

Therefore, appointment orders could not be issued. In the interregnum, the GO of January 2012 was issued. The applicant’s counsel said the GO could be made applicable only to vacancies which could arise subsequent to the GO. He therefore sought a clarification. A Division Bench comprising Justices N. Paul Vasanthakumar and M. Sathyanarayanan reserved orders on the review applications on March 7. On that date, a group of government-trained nursing students threatened to commit suicide by jumping from the Additional Law Chambers in the High Court demanding government jobs.

In the order, the Bench said that analysing the facts and in the light of the ratio laid down by the Supreme Court in various decisions, it was of the considered view that a mere certificate verification not followed by appointment order did not confer any right to be appointed. The court was also not expected to rehear the matter and the power of review could be exercised with extreme care and caution. Only in exceptional circumstances it could be done and the review should not be an appeal in disguise.