In Brief
Registered Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives (ANM) with Intermediate qualification in Arts stream challenged their ineligibility for appointment as Family Health Workers under Uttarakhand recruitment rules, contending the rules were inconsistent with the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947, and that the 2016 advertisement did not explicitly require science qualification. The Supreme Court held that the State, as a public employer under Article 309 of the Constitution, was competent to prescribe essential educational qualifications beyond the minimum standards set by the Nursing Council. The statutory recruitment rules mandating science stream qualification in intermediate education, framed by Uttar Pradesh and continued in Uttarakhand, were valid and binding. The Court rejected arguments based on the advertisement's omission of this requirement, estoppel, and alleged discrimination, and dismissed all appeals.
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