Equal Pay for Equal Work - The Legal Chamber

The Supreme Court has referred to a larger bench the question of whether MBBS (allopathic) and AYUSH (indigenous system) doctors can be treated equally for service conditions like retirement age and pay. The Court noted divergent precedents on whether classification based on educational qualification and differing job functions violates Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. Facts Of The Case: The case involves a batch of Special Leave Petitions concerning the service conditions of doctors, specifically whether practitioners of allopathy (MBBS doctors) and those of indigenous systems like Ayurveda, Homeopathy, and Unani (AYUSH doctors) can be treated equally, particularly regarding retirement age. The legal dispute stems from varying retirement ages set by different states for the...

The Supreme Court affirmed the principle of "equal pay for equal work" for contractually appointed Assistant Professors performing identical duties as their regular and ad-hoc counterparts. It directed the State to pay them the minimum of the pay scale applicable to the post, holding that the nature of the appointment (contractual) does not negate the entitlement to pay parity when the work is the same. Facts Of The Case: The case originated from the State of Gujarat where a significant number of sanctioned posts for Assistant Professors in Government Engineering and Polytechnic colleges remained vacant for years. To address this shortage, the state government made appointments on both ad hoc and contractual bases. The respondents were Assistant Professors appointed on a contractua...

Tag: Equal Pay for Equal Work

Supreme Court to Re-examine If Ayurveda, Homeopathy Doctors Should Retire at Same Age as MBBS Doctors

Supreme Court Upholds “Equal Pay for Equal Work” for Contractual Assistant Professors