Can Ayurveda practitioners conduct surgery, asks IMA

Can Ayurveda practitioners conduct surgery, asks IMA

SC Seeks Response; Centre Says Practice In Vogue Since 2016

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:16.03.2021 

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) on a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) challenging a recent decision by the former allowing Ayurveda practitioners to carry out certain surgical procedures. The IMA said this would play havoc with the health of millions.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh did not have to labour hard to convince a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian to issue notice to CCIM. However, when he sought a stay on the operation of CCIM’s 2020 modification of rules permitting Ayurveda practitioners from carrying out surgeries, solicitor general Tushar Mehta stepped in and said the government had substantial grounds to defend the CCIM rules.

Mehta said the IMA had “over-pitched” its concern and what was been said to be provided for now by CCIM had actually been in existence since 2016. Appearing for the Ayurveda practitioners’ association, advocate V K Biju said Ayurveda practitioners had been carrying out surgeries since 2000 as it was part of Ashtanga Ayurveda, under which surgeries were conducted centuries ago. Biju said the IMA was trying to belittle Ayurveda and the Indian system of medicine and displayed its lack of knowledge about Ayurveda’s history.

However, the IMA was scathing in its attack on CCIM and said it transgressed into the modern medicine system by prescribing certain practices/activities which were purely modern surgical procedures — forming an integral/ inseparable part of the system of modern medicine — as part of the curriculum and practice of Indian medicine.

“If the CCIM regulations permitting surgery by Ayurveda practitioners are allowed to be enforced, it would create havoc in the established system of medical care and treatment,” Singh said, adding that in the past, the SC and HCs had stepped in decisively to quash attempts by CCIM to transgress into the domain of modern medicine.

“While the earlier instances mostly pertained to the transgression into modern medicine by seeking to permit prescription of allopathic medicine by practitioners of Indian system of medicine, the impugned regulations present an extremely dangerous and critical situation where now, an attempt has been made by the CCIM to permit persons possessing qualifications under the Indian system of medicine to perform complicated modern surgical procedures which have a direct bearing on the health and right to life of millions of hapless patients,” the IMA said.

It added that modern surgical procedures had evolved after decades of research and study under the system of modern medicine. “CCIM has no power or jurisdiction to prescribe these modern surgical procedures to be performed by persons holding post-graduate Ayurveda degrees, which are confined to the system of Indian medicine. In the prevalent situation and the background, there is no permissibility whatsoever for CCIM to issue the impugned regulations,” the IMA said.

Full report on www.toi.in

Appearing for the Ayurveda practitioners’ association, advocate V K Biju said Ayurveda practitioners had been carrying out surgeries since 2000 as it was part of Ashtanga Ayurveda, under which surgeries were conducted centuries ago