Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Principal bench of Jabalpur High Court on Friday took on record an undertaking submitted by the MP Nursing Registration Council (MPNRC) and issued orders mandating that no examinations shall be conducted without the explicit permission of the High Court. The case is scheduled to be heard again on April 28 by a division bench led by the Chief Justice.
Consequently, for any proposed examinations involving nursing colleges, the MP Nursing Council must now submit a formal application and obtain prior approval from the High Court. The final decision regarding the conduct of these examinations will be taken based on the court's direction.
The division bench, comprising Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Avinendra Kumar Singh, conducted a hearing regarding the state's widely discussed nursing scam case. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Law Students Association headed by advocate Vishal Baghel had challenged the accreditation process of hundreds of fraudulent nursing colleges established in Madhya Pradesh during the 2020-21 academic year.
An application was filed alleging that the MP Nursing Council, instead of transferring students from the 117 nursing colleges deemed ineligible by the CBI institutions accused of jeopardising students' futures by running substandard GNM courses was proceeding to conduct final-year examinations for students enrolled in those very colleges, with the exams scheduled to commence on April 28.
In fact, following strict directives from the High Court, a subsequent CBI investigation revealed that out of approximately 800 nursing colleges, nearly 600 were found to be either unsuitable or riddled with deficiencies.
These institutions were found to suffer from severe shortages of essential infrastructure and facilities, such as proper buildings, laboratories, libraries, experienced faculty, and attached 100-bed hospitals. Many colleges existed merely on paper, while numerous principals and faculty members were shown as being simultaneously employed across as many as 15 different colleges.
