Ayurveda practitioners not entitled to the same pay as doctors with MBBS degrees : Supreme Court

Allopathy doctors perform emergency duties and provide trauma care, which is not done by Ayurveda practitioners

New Delhi – Ayurveda doctors working in Government Hospitals cannot claim equal pay as their counterparts in allopathy, as they do not perform equal work, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday while setting aside the Gujarat High Court’s decision of 23^rd of April. Allopathic doctors perform complicated surgical operations and emergency services which the Ayurvedic doctors are not able to give, the Court clarified.

The #SupremeCourt on Wednesday set aside a #GujaratHighCourt order which had held that #Ayurveda practitioners working in government hospitals should be treated at par with allopathy doctors and entitled to equal pay.https://t.co/3WmJKf7KzM

— The Hindu (@the_hindu) April 27, 2023

Gujarat High Court in 2012 had opined that Ayurvedic doctors are in the same category as MBBS doctors. A plea was made against this verdict. The Supreme Court gave the decision after considering the Government’s appeal against the Gujarat High Court’s decision.

The Court observed,

1. “While recognising the importance of Ayurveda doctors and the need to promote alternative/indigenous systems of medicine, we cannot be oblivious of the fact that both categories of doctors are certainly not performing equal work to be entitled to equal pay.”

2. “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 emergency complicated surgical operations. A study of Ayurveda does not authorise them to perform these surgeries.”

3. “By the very nature of the science that they practice and with the advancement of science and modern medical technology, the emergency duty that allopathy doctors are capable of performing and the trauma care that they are capable of providing, cannot be performed by Ayurveda doctors,” the Bench held.

Editorial viewpoint

80% of the problems in a human’s life are due to spiritual causes. Hence, many times an allopathic doctor is unsuccessful, but an Ayurvedic doctor diagnoses after considering the prarabdha (Destiny that is experienced in this birth), negative energies’ distress, and time. Therefore, this point should also be considered when deciding that ‘both are not of the same category’ and that ‘both cannot be given the same pay’.