The Delhi High Court has contested the Military Nursing Service Ordinance, 1943, and the Military Nursing Service (India) Rules, 1944,…
Delhi High Court. (File Photo: IANS)
The Delhi High Court has contested the Military Nursing Service Ordinance, 1943, and the Military Nursing Service (India) Rules, 1944, which has raised concerns about the ban on men working as nurses in the Indian Army.
A petition filed by the Indian Professional Nurses Association challenging the Military Nursing Service Ordinance and the Military Nursing Service (India) Rules, which says that only women can be appointed in the Indian Military Nursing Service, was being heard by a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula. The bench questioned the justification for this prohibition based on gender.
The court said that there doesn’t seem to be any logical reason why men can’t be posted to Siachen, one of the world’s highest battlefields, if women can.
The Central government’s Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati stated that Army procedures are strongly ingrained in tradition.
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The judges argued that, notwithstanding the government’s efforts to empower women, it is contradictory to forbid men from serving as Army nurses.
The bench remarked, “… in Parliament, you talk about empowering women, but you’re saying men cannot join (Army) as nurses.”
The bench further emphasised the need to eradicate gender bias by pointing out that the Supreme Court had permitted women to enroll in the National Defence Academy.
The petitioner’s attorney, Amit George, contended that the ban on men working as military nurses is out of date and is based on Florence Nightingale’s historical view of nursing as a women-only profession.
He pointed out that there are many qualified male nurses at various hospitals now.
The court also acknowledged the significance of this issue and scheduled the matter for further consideration for November. The Indian Professional Nurses Association had filed this case in 2018, saying that the gender-based discrimination in the Ordinance and Rules contradicts the constitutional principle of gender equality and should be deemed unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary.
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