The Supreme Court recently held that allopathy doctors and Ayurveda doctors do not perform equal hence, are not entitled to equal pay.
The court noted that the Ayurveda doctors can’t perform emergency duties and give trauma care like the allopathy doctors. It further noted that the Ayurveda doctors are unable to assist surgeons performing complicated surgeries, while MBBS doctors can do the same. The court clarified, “we shall not be understood to mean as though one system of medicine is superior to the other. It is not our mandate nor within our competence to assess the relative merits of these two systems of medical sciences.”
It added – “Therefore, we have no doubt that every alternative system of medicine may have its pride of place in history. But today, the practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine do not perform complicated surgical operations. A study of Ayurveda does not authorize them to perform these surgeries.”
The court noted that the Ayurveda doctors are not required in a post-mortem and also the MBBS doctors are made to attend hundreds of patients day to day in general hospitals, which is not the case with Ayurveda doctors.
A Bench comprised of Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice Pankaj Mithal set aside a Gujarat High Court order holding that practitioners with a Bachelor of Ayurved in Medicine and Surgery degree are to be treated on par with doctors with MBBS degrees and are entitled to the benefits of the Tikku Pay Commission’s recommendation.
