Guwahati: The Supreme Court of India has ruled that Ayurveda practitioners working in government hospitals should not be treated at par with doctors holding MBBS degrees and are not entitled to equal pay.
The ruling overturns a 2012 Gujarat High Court order that granted equal pay to Ayurveda practitioners.
The court stated that although Ayurveda doctors are important, they are not performing equal work as MBBS doctors, who attend to hundreds of patients during outpatient days (OPD) in general hospitals in cities/towns.
Also Read: Assam: Imported fish with formalin threatening lives in state?
The bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal clarified that AYUSH doctors are not qualified to perform post-mortem examinations and cannot assist surgeons in complicated surgeries.
The court also acknowledged that every alternative system of medicine may have its pride of place in history, but practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine do not perform complicated surgical operations.
Also Read: Assam: Gauhati HC refuses to quash FIR against Srinivas BV in Angkita Dutta harassment case
The bench added that it is not the court’s mandate nor within its competence to assess the relative merits of these two systems of medical sciences.
The ruling comes as a response to a batch of appeals challenging the 2012 Gujarat High Court order.