MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday ordered the state health department, the police and Tamil University to ensure that those who obtained a ‘Diploma in Siddha Medicine’ certificate from the university cannot practise Siddha medicine in the state.
The order was passed by Justice B Pugalendhi after a man, K Jayakumar, who claimed to have studied the said course in the aforementioned university, filed a petition seeking direction to the police not to disturb his Siddha practice in Thanjavur.
The university offered a one-year diploma course in 2007 by obtaining provisional recognition from the Indira Gandhi National Open University. However, the course was discontinued the next year as the high court had passed an order restraining the university from conducting the course as it neither had the required faculty nor was permitted to do so in light of the enactment of the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University Act, 1987.
However, the judge expressed concern over the fact that at least 576 students had received the said diploma certificate. He was not convinced by the university’s claim that it had mentioned in the certificates that the said course was not for practising Siddha medicine and that it had also obtained undertakings from the students.
If any of these diploma holders are practising Siddha medicine using these certificates, it would wreak havoc on the society. We are already witnessing several cases involving quacks, the judge observed and issued the above direction.
Meanwhile, it was found that Jayakumar’s diploma certificate was forged, and therefore his petition was dismissed with directions to the police to take appropriate action against him.