Ayurveda doctors not entitled to equal pay as MBBS doctors: Supreme Court

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, and hence they are not entitled to equal pay as MBBS doctors, said Supreme Court while setting aside Gujarat High Court order that Ayurveda practitioners are at par with MBBS doctors in terms of pay benefits.

The apex court has set aside a Gujarat High Court order that had held that Ayurveda practitioners are at par with MBBS doctors in terms of pay benefits and said that Ayurveda doctors don't do complex surgeries and hence are not entitled equal pay as MBBS doctors.

A Bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal stated that both categories don't do equal work and hence they cannot 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, as reported by Bar and Bench.

The Supreme Court was hearing the Gujarat government's appeal against a 2013 High Court order that had held that Ayurveda doctors are, like their MBBS counterparts, 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.

Ayurvedic doctors do not perform complicated surgeries, says SC

The court said that Ayurvedic doctors do not perform complicated surgeries, even post-mortem/autopsies or magisterial inquiries into causes of death.

"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," said the court.

"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," added the court.

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