'PG students of Ayurveda don't perform same duties as that of Allopathy,' SC sets aside HC order on equal stipend

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said Post Graduate students in Ayurveda would not be entitled to stipend being paid to Allopathy stream students as they do not perform same duties.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta allowed an appeal filed by the Madhya Pradesh government and set aside the High Court's order of November 19, 2019 finding it to be "not sustainable in law".

Additional Advocate General for Madhya Pradesh, Saurabh Mishra questioned the validity of the HC's order, saying the issue is no longer res integra.

He said the Supreme Court in the case of State of Gujarat and others Vs Dr P A Bhatt and others, last year had held, duties discharged by the Post Graduate students in Ayurveda stream cannot be equated with the duties discharged by the Post Graduate students in Allopathy stream.

"As a matter of fact, subsequently, there has been a revision of stipend paid to both the streams and there is not much of a difference in the stipend paid to the Post Graduate students in both the streams," he said.

A counsel for Ayurveda students, who filed the writ petition before the HC, no interference was warranted with the judgment and order, as the stand taken by the state government was found as not tenable.

The Ayurveda students had claimed, though the duties discharged by them were same as compared to the duties by the Post Graduate students belonging to the Allopathy stream, they were discriminated against in the matter of stipend.

The bench concurred with the state counsel's assertion and relied upon its 2023 judgment, which stated "Even while recognising the importance of Ayurveda doctors and the need to promote alternative or 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".

The top court held the HC's judgment and order would not be sustainable in view of the specific findings of this court that the nature of duties discharged by the Post Graduate students in Ayurveda stream is not the same as that of Post Graduate students undertaking therein education in Allopathy stream.