- (1.) Smt. Sutapa Sinha and two others are before this Court assailing the validity of the order dated 27.5.2011 passed by the Single Judge in Contempt Application (Civil) No. 820 of 2002 whereby prayer made by the applicants to practice, impart education and to propagate the system of Electro Homeopathy till such time as legislation to recognize new systems of medicine is enacted as per D.O. Letter dated 7.5.2010, has been rejected.
(2.) The appellants before us are claiming that Government of India has not formulated any policy with regard to education and practice of Electro Homeopathy and has issued order dated 25.11.2003 wherein it has treated this system as unrecognized system as there was no legislation to grant licence to the existing/new institutions, who were imparting education of Electropathy/Electro Homeopathy as an alternative system.
(3.) The said order of Central Government dated 25.11.2003 was issued in compliance of the order of the Delhi High Court passed in Writ Petition No. 4015 (PIL) of 1996 wherein the Delhi High Court had issued direction to the Central Government to control the affairs of the various institutes who impart education of Electropathy/Electro Homeopathy. In compliance of the order of the Delhi High Court, a Committee was constituted by the Central Government to make recommendation with regard to the institutes imparting education in Electro Homeopathy. The recommendation made by the said Committee on 25.11.2003 is as follows:- The Committee did not recommended recognition to any of these alternative medicines except the already recognized traditional systems of medicines, viz. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Homoeopathy and Yoga and Naturopathy which were found to fulfill the essential and desirable criteria developed by the Committee for recognition of a system of medicine. The Committee has, however, recommended that certain practices as Acupuncture and Hypno therapy which qualified as modes of therapy, could be allowed to be practiced by registered practitioners or appropriately trained personnel. The Committee further suggested that all those systems of Medicine not recognized as separate systems should not be allowed to continue full time Bachelor and Master's degree courses and term 'Doctor' should be used only by practitioners of systems of medicine recognized by the . Those considered as Mode of Therapy can be conducted as Certificate courses for registered medical practitioners to adopt these modes of therapy in their practice, whether modern medicine of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy. This issues with the approval of Secretary (Health), . "No. R. 14015/25/96-U&H(R)(Pt.) Government of India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Research Desk) Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi Dated the 25th Nov. 2003. O R D E R The matter regarding grant of recognition to the various streams of alternative medicine including Electropathy/Electro-Homeopathy has been under consideration of the Govt. In this process Govt. has considered the orders dated 18.11.1998 of the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi a C.W.P. No. 4015/96 and O.M. No. 8468/97 which has inter-alia directed the Cental/State Govts. to consider making legislation to grant of licenses to the existing and new institutes etc. to control and regulate the various 'unrecognised' streams of alternative medicines and also to give adequate publicity through media informing public about the 'Respondents' and similar other institutions not been recognized by the Government and affiliated with any of the Councils. Government constituted a 'Standing Committee of Experts' under the Chairmanship of Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research and members were drawn from various fields of medicine to consider and give its recommendations to the Government on the efficacy/merits of various stream of alternative medicine and also examine feasibility of making legislation as suggested by the Hon'ble Court. The Committee develop essential and desirable criteria for grant of recognition to a new stream of medicine and analysed the different streams of 'alternative medicine viz. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Homoeopathy, Yoga and Naturopathy, Electropathy/Electro-Homoeopathy, Acupuncture, Magneto therapy Reiki, Reflexology, Urine Therapy/Auto urine therapy, Hypnotherapy, Aromatherapy, Colour Therapy, Panic Healing Germs and Stone Therapy and Music Therapy. The Committee did not recommended recognition to any of these alternative medicines except the already recognized traditional systems of medicines, viz. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Homoeopathy and Yoga and Naturopathy which were found to fulfill the essential and desirable criteria developed by the Committee for recognition of a system of medicine. The Committee has, however, recommended that certain practices as Acupuncture and Hypno therapy which qualified as modes of therapy, could be allowed to be practiced by registered practitioners or appropriately trained personnel. The Committee further suggested that all those systems of Medicine not recognized as separate systems should not be allowed to continue full time Bachelor and Master's degree courses and term 'Doctor' should be used only by practitioners of systems of medicine recognized by the Government of India. Those considered as Mode of Therapy can be conducted as Certificate courses for registered medical practitioners to adopt these modes of therapy in their practice, whether modern medicine of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy. After carefully examining the various recommendations of the Committee, the Government accepted these recommendations of the Committee. Accordingly, it is requested that the State/UT Govt. may give wide publicity to the decision of the Govt. They may also ensure that institutions under the State/UT do not grant any degree/diploma in the stream of medicine which have not been recommended for recognition and the term 'Doctor' is used by practitioners of recognized system of medicine. This issues with the approval of Secretary (Health), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (Bhavani Thyagarajan) Joint Secretary. To, 1. All Health Secretaries of States/UTs. 2. Secretary, UGC 3. Dental Council of India, Indian Nursing Council,Medical Council of India, Pharmacy Council of India, Indian Council of Medical Research. 4. Secretary, Deptt. Of ISM&H. 5. CCIM, CCH, CCRAS, CCRYN, CCRH, CCRUM.";