Govt order against surgical training for ayurveda students set aside
Kerala High Court on Thursday quashed a government order barring ayurveda students from getting training in gynaecology and surgery in the government medical colleges in the state.
Justice K. Vinod Chandran issued the order while allowing the petition filed by the Ayurveda Medical Association of India. The court observed that there was no application of mind and that the government had acted merely on the basis of the letter issued by the state secretary of the IMA.
Hence the order was set aside for violation of natural justice and total non-appliance of mind. The court directed the government to consider the issue afresh after hearing the stakeholders within two months.
According to the petitioner, if the new order is implemented, no ayurveda students from Kerala would be eligible to be enrolled as ayurveda doctors.
As per the mandate prepared by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, the governing body of ayurveda, unani and sidha, ayurveda doctors should be given training in gynaecology, which is available in government hospitals where allopathy doctors are practising, the counsel submitted.
The Central Council of Indian Medicine has mandated training in gynaecology and minor and major obstetric surgical procedures. The petitioner contended that none of the government and aided ayurveda colleges were equipped with the facility.
Earlier, the government had granted sanction for training in gynaecology at Government Women and Children Hospital at Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram, General Hospital, Ernakulam, and all district hospitals in the state.
However, it later issued an order keeping the earlier order in abeyance. The petitioner stated that the government passed the order arbitrarily on the basis of a letter from the Indian Medical Association without taking note of the ulterior motives of the IMA.
The IMA submitted that the government has power to decide whether training should be given or not in the hospital dispensing modern medicine. The government pleader said that it had passed the order taking into account the objections of the IMA.
