Supreme Court: In an appeal filed to espouse the cause of Homeopathic Medical Professionals, the Division Bench of Uday Umesh Lalit and S. Ravindra Bhat, JJ., directed the Bihar government to reconsider the stipulated percentage for filling up the posts of Medical Professionals.
The appellant-petitioner had approached the Court to assail the dismissal of his petition by the impugned order and judgment of the Patna High Court.
Noticeably, the appellant had filed a petition in the High Court challenging the validity of the Bihar District AYUSH Medical/State AYUSH Medical Service (Appointment on Regular/Contractual Basis and Service Condition) Rules, 2010 and the Resolution No.25 dated 13-01-1998 issued by the Department of Health, Government of Bihar stipulating following percentage for filling up the posts of Medical Professionals in the respective disciplines:
a) Ayurvedic -50%
b) Unani -20%
c) Homeopathic -30%
The basic submission of the petitioner was that the prescription percentage was not commensurate with the number of Homeopathic Medical Professionals and the students or the demand for Homeopathic medicine. However, the said petition was rejected by the High Court.
Pertinently, the State could not readily answer the Court's query as to the justification or the reason which weighed with the Government in making the aforesaid prescription.
The Court noted that in the year 2020, two legislations namely, the National Commission of Homeopathy Act, 2020 and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 were enacted by the Parliament. Since the resolution in question was of the year 1998, without going into any submission advanced on behalf of the parties, the Court opined that it would be in the fitness of things that the matter is considered afresh by the authorities concerned.
The Court added that while reconsidering the matter the authorities concerned shall take into account all the relevant factors; i.e., the number of practicing Professionals in concerned disciplines, the number of students and colleges admitting students in respective discipline(s), and such other relevant factors. The State had assured the Court that the appropriate steps will be taken within three months.
In the light of the above, the appeal was disposed of.
[Yogendra Prasad Mandal v. State of Bihar, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 998, decided on 01-08-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Manish Kumar, Advocate, for the State.
*Kamini Sharma, Editorial Assistant has put this report together.
