The Indian Nursing Council (INC) has issued a notification regarding a judgment passed by the Bombay High Court on October 9, 2025, which ordered the cancellation of 90 illegal admissions in nursing colleges across Maharashtra and imposed significant penalties on the management of the violating institutions.
The ruling was delivered in a series of writ petitions (including W.P. No. 5697/2025) concerning students who were admitted to Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANM) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) programs for the Academic Year 2024-25 without possessing the requisite minimum educational qualifications prescribed by the INC.
The High Court’s Verdict
The Bombay High Court found that the student petitioners and 68 other students were admitted illegally, having enrolled for the GNM course even though their Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) vocational subjects did not match the prescribed health-related criteria. The court made the following definitive orders:
- Cancellation of Admissions: The admissions of all student petitioners were cancelled.
- Refund of Fees: The institutions’ managements were directed to return the entire fees collected from the illegally admitted students within 45 days.
- Imposition of Damages: The managements must pay Rs 1 lakh to each student towards damages for the loss of the academic year, also within 45 days.
- Action Against Management: The court directed the competent authority to initiate action against the managements of the institutions for granting illegal admissions. The scope of this inquiry is to include the scrutiny of all admissions for a period of five preceding years.
The court dismissed the students’ plea for “negative parity” (claiming they should be allowed to continue because other illegally admitted seniors were still in the second or third year), stating that perpetuating illegality is unacceptable.
INC’s Warning to Institutions
The Indian Nursing Council emphasized that the power to prescribe admission conditions and minimum eligibility criteria for nursing courses is fully vested in the INC under Section 16(1) of the INC Act.
- All nursing institutions, universities, and boards are brought to notice that they are bound by the guidelines and regulations framed by the INC.
- Any deviation from the prescribed admission terms and conditions will result in the cancellation of the admission and invite strict action against the management or nursing institution under relevant provisions.
- Officials of the competent authority or State Nursing Examination Board/University who fail to implement the correct admission process will also be liable for strict action, as held by the Bombay High Court.