Ayurveda doctors don't do complex surgeries; not entitled to equal pay as MBBS doctors: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Gujarat High Court order that had held that Ayurveda practitioners are at par with MBBS doctors in terms of pay benefits [State of Gujarat and ors etc v. Dr PA Bhatt and ors etc]..A Bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal stated that it cannot be oblivious of the fact that both categories do not perform equal work to be entitled to equal pay."Allopathy doctors are required to perform emergency duties and to provide trauma care. 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. It is also not possible for Ayurveda doctors to assist surgeons performing complicated surgeries, while MBBS doctors can assist," the order said.The Bench clarified that while alternative systems of medicine may have their 'pride of place in history', in modern times, such practitioners cannot carry out or assist in surgeries."It is common knowledge that during out-patient days (OPD) in general hospitals in cities/towns, MBBS doctors are made to attend to hundreds of patients, which is not the case with Ayurveda doctors...even while recognizing 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.".The Bench was hearing the Gujarat government's appeal against a 2013 High Court order that had held that Ayurveda doctors are, like their MBBS counterparts, are entitled to be paid benefits recommended by the Tikku Pay Commission.Relying on several precedents, the apex court at the outset made it clear that a classification based upon educational qualification is not violative of Articles 14 and 16..On the issue of parity between doctors of modern medicine and Ayurveda, the Bench stated,"The practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine do not perform complicated surgical operations. A study of Ayurveda does not authorise them to perform these surgeries."It was pointed out that even post-mortem/autopsies or magisterial inquiries into causes of death are not carried out by Ayurveda doctors."We do not think that the AYUSH doctors are normally notified as competent to perform post-mortem."The appeal was, thus, allowed..Advocates Archana Pathak Dave, Swati Ghildiyal, and Devyani Bhatt appeared for the State of Gujarat.Advocates Nirav Majmudar, Priank Adhyaru, Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, and Kusum Chaudhary represented the respondents. .[Read Judgment]