Ayurvedic doctors not qualified to perform surgeries or post-mortems: Supreme Court

On 27 April 2023, Supreme Court of India, in STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS. ETC. Vs DR. P. A. BHATT & ORS. ETC. , has held that Ayurvedic doctors are not entitled to the same pay as allopathic doctors, as they do not perform the same duties. The decision was made in a series of civil appeals filed by the State of Gujarat against an order of the High Court of Gujarat, which had directed the state government to pay Ayurvedic doctors on par with allopathic doctors.

The bench of Justices V. Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal noted that while alternative systems of medicine may have their place in history, practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine do not perform complicated surgical operations, nor are they qualified to perform post-mortems. They also pointed out that during out-patient days in general hospitals, MBBS doctors attend to hundreds of patients, which is not the case with Ayurvedic doctors.

The court further referred to a comparative chart submitted by the State of Gujarat, which claimed that IV injections and ART injections cannot be administered by Ayurvedic doctors. The bench held that while Ayurvedic doctors are important and alternative systems of medicine need to be promoted, they do not perform equal work as allopathic doctors and are therefore not entitled to equal pay.

The court allowed all the appeals, set aside the impugned order of the High Court and dismissed the writ petitions filed by the respondents. The contempt petitions were also dismissed along with all interlocutory applications including the impleadment application(s). No costs were awarded.

The court further held that benefits derived by the respondents by virtue of the interim order passed by the court on 08.09.2014 were liable to be recovered from the respondents. The court justified this by stating that a benefit derived by an individual by virtue of an interim order passed by a court cannot be allowed to be retained if the ultimate outcome of the case went against such a person.

STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS. ETC. Vs DR. P. A. BHATT & ORS. ETC.