Ayurvedic, allopathic doctors not entitled to equal pay: Supreme Court

New Delhi, April 26

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that practitioners of alternative systems of medicine such as ayurveda are not entitled to equal pay with allopathic doctors as they are not involved in performing emergency duties and complicated surgeries.

Setting aside a Gujarat High Court order, the top court said the emergency duty that allopathic doctors were capable of performing and the trauma care that they were able to provide could not be performed by ayurvedic practitioners.

It noted that even post-mortem or autopsy was not carried out by ayurvedic practitioners. The apex court was hearing appeals challenging a 2012 Gujarat HC order which held that ayurvedic practitioners were entitled to be treated on a par with doctors with MBBS degrees.

While recognising the importance of ayurvedic practitioners and the need to promote alternative or indigenous systems of medicine, a Bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice Pankaj Mithal said it could not be oblivious to the fact that both categories of doctors were not performing equal work to be entitled to equal pay.