SC to consider setting different retirement ages for allopathic doctors and AYUSH practitioners, ET HealthWorld

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday will consider the vexed question of whether there can be a difference in the retirement age of allopathic doctors compared to Ayurvedic practitioners and other doctors working in government hospitals and clinics. Agreed. Focusing on the shortage of allopathic doctors, the Rajasthan state government raised the retirement age from 60 to 62 years from March 31, 2016, and the government’s AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, homeopathy) led to a lawsuit. ) Doctor. On February 28, the Rajasthan High Court accepted the appeal of Ayurvedic doctors and ruled that if their retirement date is after March 31, 2016, they will be considered active until the age of 62.

The High Court further ruled that “any person receiving an old-age pension on reaching the age of 60 but who has not yet reached the age of 62 shall immediately return to work.”

The state government appealed to the Supreme Court, asking a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra to stay the order.

“Why should we interfere in this?” the CJI initially pointed out.

However, the court agreed to consider the state government’s appeal after considering the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The attorney general said about 1,000 such doctors would return to work as a result of the High Court’s decision.

“We will issue notice,” the bench said.

The high court upheld the complaint of AYUSH doctors who argued that the difference in retirement ages is discriminatory and violates Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.

AYUSH doctors submitted that they perform the same function of treating and curing patients and therefore this classification is discriminatory and unreasonable.

Meanwhile, the state government had filed a petition with the High Court stating that it had decided to raise the retirement age for allopathic doctors from 60 to 62 due to a shortage of allopathic doctors working in the state. .

However, a similar increase in retirement age for AYUSH doctors is not considered necessary by the state government as there are a large number of AYUSH doctors working in the state, the state government said.