The Supreme Court made an announcement on 26th April 2023 mentioning, Allopathy doctors and Ayurveda doctors don’t perform equal work so they cannot be permitted uniform pay.
Two issues were submitted before the Supreme Court. Firstly, to fix the different pay scale to the officers who are appointed for the same organization on the basis of the educational qualifications. Secondly, to give equal pay to both ayurveda doctors and Allopathy doctors for performing equal work.
The Supreme Court observed that the classification on the basis of education is not a violation as per Articles 14 & 16 of the Indian Constitution.
It was noted by the Supreme Court that the Allopathy doctors are more capable of performing their duties in the traumatic and emergency situation when compared to the Ayurveda doctors, It was also observed that the MBBS doctors can assist and perform the complicated surgeries which is not possible in case of Ayurvedic doctors.It was said that every medical system has its own specialty and pride but the indigenous ayurvedic system is not authorized for handling complicated surgeries in recent times.
The presence of ayurveda doctors in case of autopsy or post-mortem in general hospitals of cities and towns are restricted.
A Board consisting of 2 judges, Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice V. Ramasubramanian kept away the order given by Gujarat High Court that the practitioners holding a graduation in BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurved in Medicine and Surgery) should be treated as same as the doctors holding the degree in MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) and they were qualified to enjoy the benefits that are suggested by the Tikku pay commission.
Considering the distinction between the Allopathy doctors and the Ayurvedic doctors, the bench members said that while acknowledging the importance of the indigenous medical system and the need of promoting ayurvedic doctors, the bench members said that they cannot ignore the fact that both the doctors are not performing equal task to entitle the equal pay.
A diagrammatic representation differentiating the work carried out by Ayurveda doctors and MBBS holders was submitted challenging the order given by the High Court. Extracting from the submitted diagram, the judgment said that the Ayurveda doctors are never present in a post-mortem or autopsy and under the section 176 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the civil surgeons are one of the important doctors whose presence is required in case of the magisterial enquiry for the unnatural deaths.
