Patanjali moves Delhi High Court supporting Ashwini Upadhyay plea for integration of Allopathy, Ayurveda

Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Research Institute has moved the Delhi High Court supporting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay for integration of Allopathy, Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani and other forms of medicine systems and a common syllabus for all medical colleges [Ashwini Upadhyay v Union of India & Ors]. .Senior Advocate Inderbir Singh Alag along with advocates Simranjeet Singh and Rhea Dube of Athena Legal appeared for Patanjali and stated that they have filed an intervention application in support of the prayers made in the plea. The bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad noted that the application was not on record and asked the counsels to place the same within a week. .Meanwhile, Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Kirtiman Singh appeared for the Central government also said that they have filed their response to the PIL.Singh added that the petition is not adversarial in nature. The Court noted that even the Centre's response is not on record and asked Singh to bring it on record as well.The Court then listed the case for further consideration on November 11..In his petition, Upadhyay has prayed for the adoption of an Indian holistic integrated medicinal approach rather than the colonial segregated.This would help secure right to health guaranteed under the Constitution, he contended..The plea said that around 70 percent of India’s population lives in rural areas but 52 percent of allopathic doctors are practicing in just five States -- Maharashtra (15%), Tamil Nadu (12%), Karnataka (10%), Andhra Pradesh (8%) and Uttar Pradesh (7%).This, Upadhyay argued, means that rural India still remains deprived of medicinal benefits and this is reflected in highly skewed distribution of health workforce across States.“As doctors are confined to a few States but patients reside across India, it has led to introduction of several health care mediators and they are ruining the integrity of Indian health care system as they tend to fetch more money from patients in the name of providing better treatment. This situation is highly un-ethical and illegal as it will deprive the diseased individuals from attaining health benefits due to their inability to pay high health expenses,” the plea stated.It was also argued that there has been a 123 percent rise globally in deaths from prescription drug overdose between the year 2006-2014 and serious but non-fatal prescription drug overdose outcomes has increased as well.The PIL argued that despite knowledge of the linkage between antibiotic use and resistance, there is a significant worldwide misuse and overuse of antibiotics which, according to an estimate, is costing health systems around US$54 Billion per year, equivalent to 0.9% of the world’s expenditure on healthcare.“Many so-called revolutionary medical innovations have in long-run proven to be dangerous causing severe and long-term side-effects but Centre is not introducing Holistic Integrated Healthcare System,” it stated.