CHENNAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the union and state health departments to consider, within two months, a batch of petitions filed by some alternative medicine practitioners in 2020 to stop police from interfering with their practice.
The petitioners submitted that persons who have completed diploma courses in alternative systems of medicine are entitled to practice it. Their practice is also recognised by the union government and various high courts, they added.
However, in Tamil Nadu, the police are interfering with their practice and the regular visits by policemen are causing apprehension in the minds of the patients, which in turn, disturbs their right to carry out their profession, they claimed and sought the intervention of the union and state health authorities in the matter.
Justice PT Asha, who heard the petitions, observed, “When the country had gone into lockdown during Covid-19, the government had been exploring the possibility of alternative medicines like Siddha, Ayurveda, Unani, etc.”
In fact, the acronym of these forms of medical practice (AYUSH) is the name of the Ministry of the Government of India responsible for developing education, research and propagation of traditional medicine systems in India, she pointed out, adding that the growing popularity of this form of medicine appears to have propelled the Supreme Court to recognize diploma issued for the alternative medicine courses. Taking these into account, the judge opined it is necessary for the union and state governments to consider the petitioners’ representation and issued the above direction.