The Kerala Chapter of the Ayurvedic Medical Association of India (AMAI) has approached the high court at Ernakulam under Article 226 of the constitution of India, requesting to quash the state government order issued on 21-2-2011 giving exemption to traditional healers of Malabar region from acquiring recognized qualification and registration with the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council.

Dr V G Udayakumar, secretary of AMAI said the petition was filed in public interest as well as to protect the professional interests of the ayurvedic medical professionals of the state. He said one of the reasons to approach the court is to ensure that quackery bringing disrepute to the qualified professionals and to save the ayurvedic health care system from being misused by quacks.

According to the ayurvedic medical professionals, they are aware that a large number of bogus practitioners in the name of traditional healers continue to defraud the public by masquerading themselves as Ayurveda doctors.

They said the government has granted exemption to the traditional healers and to self educated homoeopaths based on the section 38 of Travancore-Cochin Medical Practitioners Act, 1953. As per the order, the traditional healers (Vaidyars) should have been practicing ayurveda for 20 years before 1-1-2011. According to AMAI, the terms of reference in the order is contrary to the provisions of the TCMP Act 1953, the Indian Medicine Central Council Act 1970 and Homoeopathy Central Council Act 1973.

They informed the court that the supreme court of India had earlier held that persons who did not possess recognized qualification were not entitled to practice any system of medicine after the three medical acts were enacted.

The government order of 21-2-2011 says that the healers of Malabar region can forward applications to the Registrar of the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council with in six months from the date of issuance of the order, following it, they will be given orders entitling them to be in the category of exempted persons.

The association in its affidavit said that this order is in utter disregard to the provisions of both the state and central acts, hence it is illegal, arbitrary and violative of Article 21 of the constitution of India.

The affidavit says that the Travancore-Cochin Medical Practitioners Act 1953 was promulgated to regulate the qualifications and to provide for the registration of modern medicine. It took with in its ambit the homoeopathic and the indigenous system of medicine. Section 23 of the Act mentions that ‘every holder of a recognized qualification’ shall be eligible for registration. Section 38 , to which reference has been made by counsel for the parties, states that ‘no person other than (1) a registered practitioner or (ii) a practitioner whose name is entered in the list of practitioners published under section 30 or, (iii) a practitioner whose name is not entered in the list mentioned in section 25 shall practice or hold himself out, whether directly or by implication, as practicing modern medicine, homoeopathic medicine or ayurvedic medicine, siddha medicine or unani, and no person who is not a registered practitioner of any such medicine shall practice any other medicine unless he is also a registered practitioner of that medicine’.

Dr Udayakumar said the persons who have not been registered as medical practitioners are not entitled to administer any medicine. The obvious object of the statutes is to check quackery.

The affidavit clarifies that a person who is not qualified and registered under the provisions of the TCMP Act or the Indian Medical Central Council Act or Madras Medical Registration Act cannot practice any system of medicine in the state of Kerala.

The association in its affidavit alleged that the quacks made attempts earlier to exert political pressure on the state government to permit them to continue their healing practices without acquiring required qualification, and bowing to the pressure, the government issued a notification in 2009 granting a one-time exemption for the healers of Ayurveda. The association said the government has conceded in this order that their attempt to grant exemption to the traditional healers is against the provisions of the central acts. Their another allegation is that government has now issued the order in anticipation of the vote bank politics with an eye on the coming general election in the state.

The association informed the court that the provisions of the TCMP Act has never been extended to the Malabar area  of the state of Kerala , which was part of Madras province of British India, prior to the formation of Kerala in 1956. It was the Madras Medical Registration Act 1914 that regulated the practice of medicine in the Madras province.

The section 38 of the TCMP Act is inconsistent with the provisions contained in section 17, 23 and 14 of the Indian Medicine Central Council act, 1970. They further justified that Article 254 of the constitution of Indian provides that in case of inconsistency between the central and the state law on the same subject, the central law will prevail over the state law.