Larger bench to hear plea allowing recruitment of nurses

A single judge of the Delhi High Court today transferred to a larger bench a plea seeking direction to the government to allow private agencies to recruit Indian nurses to work abroad instead of confining it only to state-run agencies.
Justice V P Vaish fixed the matter for July 20 for further hearing the plea which claimed that prohibiting private agencies was "rampant violation of human rights" as several nurses had already got jobs and visas, but were not able to go abroad due to the recent change in the rules.
The court was hearing a plea filed by 'The United Nurses Association', which sought setting aside the March 12 notification banning overseas recruitment of nurses by private agencies.

According to the notification, the recruitment of nurses for overseas employment would be restricted through three state-run recruiting agencies from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The petitioner, represented by senior advocate Krishnan Venugopal, sought direction to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to continue the existing system of recruiting nurses.
He urged the court to direct the government to conduct nurses' recruitment abroad in strict compliance with existing statutory provisions under guidelines and strict supervision of the ministry as "there is a complete chaos in this field after implementation of the notification."
According to the petition, the notification is "denying employment opportunities of the members of the profession and the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution is completely violated.