Patanjali Approaches Delhi High Court In Support Of PIL Seeking Integrated Medicinal System, Holistic Treatment Under Allopathy, Ayurveda

Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Research Institute has approached the Delhi High Court in support of a public interest litigation filed by Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking adoption of a "Holistic Integrated Medicinal System" in India.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was informed by Patanjali's counsel that an intervention application has been moved supporting the prayers made in the PIL.

Noting that the said intervention application was not on record, the Bench asked Patanjali's counsel to take steps for placing the same within a period of one week.

On the other hand, Centre informed the Court that it has filed a reply to the petition, while adding that the PIL is not adversarial.

The matter will now be heard on November 11.

It is Upadhyay's case that rather than segregated way of Allopathy, Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy in order to secure medical treatment, medical education and consequently medical treatment granted to patients should be holistic and should encompass courses of all branches.

The Petitioner insisted that the matter involves "Constitutional obligations" of the government; Right to health is guaranteed under Articles 21, 39(e), 41, 43, 47, 48(a), 51A of the Constitution.

"Modern medicine practitioners have remained confined to their own niche which has restricted them to avail knowledge of other medicinal practices and thereby cannot benefit the diseased individuals by using other therapeutic regimens. Moreover, established provisions regarding their practice doesn't permit them to use other medicinal systems in order to provide maximum health benefits. Henceforth, it is highly needed to establish integrated medicinal system to enable those practitioners who are willing to prescribe medicines of other domains," the plea stated.

Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Ayush, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Law & Justice are Respondents in the matter.

Case Title: Aswhini Upadhyay v. Union of India