AYUSH doctors entitled to equal pay as Allopathy doctors: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that both AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) and allopathy doctors working in government hospitals are entitled to equal pay and discriminating between the two amounts to violation of right to quality under Article 14 [State of Uttarakhand vs Dr Sanjay Singh Chauhan]..A Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and JK Maheshwari, therefore, upheld an Uttarakhand High Court judgment that set aside the State government's move to grant different pay for AYUSH and allopathy doctors."We do not find any ground for interference with the order passed by the High Court. The special leave petition is, accordingly, dismissed. We may only clarify that the respondents who are Ayurvedic doctors will be entitled to be treated at par with Allopathic Medical Officers and Dental Medical Officers under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM/NHM) Scheme," the Court held.The top court was hearing a special leave petition filed by the Uttarakhand government against a High Court ruling that had said that AYUSH and allopathic (modern medicine based) doctors are entitled to equal wages. The State had in 2012 recruited the two types of doctors under similar wages, but later doubled the salaries of only allopathic doctors after arguing that their work is more serious and important, a point it reiterated in the courts. The top court observed that both kinds of doctors treat patients as per their respective procedure. Dr Kartikey Hari Gupta was the counsel for the respondent-AYUSH doctors. .In August last year, the Supreme Court had held that ayurvedic doctors covered under AYUSH are entitled to the benefit of enhanced superannuation age of 65 years (raised from 60 years), at par with allopathic doctors and that "both render service to patients and on this core aspect and there is nothing to distinguish them." A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Hrishikesh Roy had stated that the difference in the method of treatment employed by the two systems will not be a reasonable ground to classify ayuverdic and allopathic doctors differently for fixing retirement age.The top court had in December 2020 refused to interfere with the Kerala High Court order prohibiting AYUSH doctors from advertising or prescribing medicines as cure for COVID-19.