NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from Central Council of Indian Medicine on a petition filed by Indian Medical Association challenging a recent decision by the former allowing Ayurveda practitioners to carry out certain surgical procedures terming the decision as one that 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 the CCIM’s 2020 modification of rules permitting Indian medicine practitioners from carrying out surgery, solicitor general Tushar Mehta stepped in and said that the government has substantial grounds to defend the CCIM rules.
Mehta said the IMA has “over-pitched” its concern and that what has been said to be provided for now by CCIM has actually been in existence since 2016.
Appearing for Ayurveda practitioners association, advocate V K Biju said the Ayurveda practitioners have been carrying out surgeries since year 2000 as it is part of Ashtanga Ayurveda, which the world knows to have conducted surgeries centuries ago. Biju said IMA is attempting to belittle Ayurveda and Indian system of medicine and displayed its lack of knowledge about the history of Ayurveda.
But, IMA was scathing in its attack on CCIM and said it transgressed into Modern Medicine system by impermissibly prescribing certain practices/activities, which are 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 Ayruveda practitioners were 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 the Modern Medicine.
“While the earlier instances have 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, the 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,” IMA said.
It said the modern surgical procedures have stood evolved after decades of research and study under the system of Modern Medicine. “The CCIM has no power or jurisdiction to prescribe these Modern Surgical Procedures to be performed by the 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,” IMA said.
It said, “surgery is not limited to the physical act of carrying out the surgical process alone. It contains numerous facets. For example, there can be a number of complications which can arise during any modern surgical process – the patient can go into vasovagal shock, the patient can have cardiac arrest, there can be internal bleeding or damage to any blood vessel or organ etc. The persons qualified to perform modern surgical process are required to possess the basic knowledge, proper teaching and training for dealing with any such complication arising during the entire process of surgery. All these processes are also part of the system of Modern Medicine and not Indian Medicine.”