In a landmark verdict, the Meghalaya High Court has declared the ban on LASIK eye surgery for nurses as discriminatory, calling it “wholly arbitrary and unreasonable.” The ruling, delivered on July 9 by Chief Justice IP Mukerji and Justice W Diengdoh, has far-reaching implications for recruitment policies across India’s armed forces and healthcare services. The case was brought to the court’s attention by Smt. Naresh Kumari, a qualified staff nurse who was denied appointment in the Assam Rifles under the Rajasthan quota in 2017. Although she met all required qualifications, including the prescribed visual standards after undergoing LASIK surgery, she was rejected during the medical examination. The reason: recruitment guidelines barred subordinate officers—including nurses—from any kind of vision correction, even with glasses. Ironically, the same guidelines allowed doctors and other direct entry gazetted officers to undergo LASIK surgery.
In a strongly worded judgment, the court highlighted the inconsistency in the government’s policy. “I fail to see how the quality of vision required by nurses be different from that prescribed for direct entry gazetted officers like doctors, dentists, veterinary officers and engineers,” observed Chief Justice Mukerji. The court held that such a distinction violated Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law. The policy in question was introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2012. It included Table 1, which allowed LASIK surgery for gazetted officers between the ages of 20 and 30, and Table 3, which strictly prohibited any form of vision correction for subordinate officers aged 18 to 35. The court noted that nurses, although classified as subordinate officers, perform duties closely aligned with those of doctors and must be treated equally in terms of medical fitness standards. Deputy Solicitor General Dr N. Mozika, representing the government, argued that the policy maintained uniformity across subordinate ranks. However, the court found the argument unconvincing and ruled that nurses, being trained medical personnel, deserved parity with doctors, especially in cases where the vision standards are otherwise met post-surgery.
The ruling not only upheld an earlier March 2024 single-judge verdict in favor of Kumari but also extended its application. The bench stated that the policy clause excluding nurses from LASIK eligibility was unconstitutional and should no longer be enforced.As part of the immediate relief, the court ordered that Kumari’s eye examination report be revised and directed her immediate appointment as Naib Subedar (Staff Nurse) in the Assam Rifles under the Rajasthan quota. The judgment also cleared the path for other nursing posts that had been delayed due to similar disqualifications to now be filled.