A Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and JK Maheshwari, therefore, upheld an Uttarakhand High Court judgment that set aside the State government’s move to grant different pay for AYUSH and allopathy doctors
Any differentiation between the two is violative of Article 14, the Bench emphasised.
The top court was hearing a special leave petition filed by the Uttarakhand government against a High Court ruling that had said that AYUSH and allopathic (modern medicine based) doctors are entitled to equal wages.
The State had in 2012 recruited the two types of doctors under similar wages, but later doubled the salaries of only allopathic doctors after arguing that their work is more serious and important, a point it reiterated in the courts.
The top court observed that both kinds of doctors treat patients as per their respective procedure.
Dr Kartikey Hari Gupta was the counsel for the respondent-AYUSH doctors.
Source: Barandbench
