LI Network
Published on: November 03, 2023 at 15:34 IST
The Supreme Court has dismissed review petitions challenging its previous judgment, which concluded that Ayurveda doctors are not entitled to equal pay as Allopathy doctors.
The bench, consisting of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Pankaj Mithal, found no apparent error in the record and no grounds for review in the judgment dated April 26, 2023, which the review petitions sought to challenge.
The review petitions were filed by the Medical Officers (Ayurved) Association and certain individuals against the judgment issued by a two-judge bench, comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice Pankaj Mithal, in the case of Medical Officers Association (Ayurveda) State Of Gujarat v. Union Of India.
The previous judgment had set aside the Gujarat High Court’s order, which had equated practitioners with a Bachelor of Ayurved in Medicine and Surgery degree to doctors with MBBS degrees.
The National Commission for Indian System for Medicine also filed a petition seeking a modification of the two-judge bench’s judgment.
In its earlier ruling, the Supreme Court emphasized the unique capabilities and limitations of each system of medicine and refrained from declaring one superior to the other. The Court clarified that it was not within its mandate or competence to assess the relative merits of these two medical systems.
The Court also highlighted the fact that MBBS doctors are trained to assist in complex surgical procedures, which Ayurvedic doctors are not equipped for. It pointed out that Ayurveda doctors are not authorized to perform such surgeries, and there are practical differences in the roles of Allopathy and Ayurvedic doctors.
Ultimately, the Court maintained that despite recognizing the importance of Ayurveda doctors and the promotion of alternative/indigenous systems of medicine, it cannot overlook the fact that both categories of doctors are not performing equal work and are, therefore, not entitled to equal pay.
