TRAVANCORE-COCHIN MEDICAL COUNCIL Vs. RAJESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Travancore-Cochin Medical Council, represented by its Secretary, is the appellant before us aggrieved by the judgment dtd. 16/11/2020 in W.P.(C).No.19208 of 2019. The writ petition was filed by the 1st respondent herein, who claimed to be a practitioner of alternative medicine, and in particular, Electro-Homeopathy, for which he was supposedly qualified by virtue of Ext.P1 diploma certificate obtained by him from the Council of Electro Homeopathic System of Medicine, Kanpur, U.P. It was the case of the 1 st respondent in the writ petition that the appellant herein had caused the State and its police machinery to interfere with his practice of Electro-Homeopathy without establishing any illegality on his part in the pursuit of such practice.

(2.) The learned Single Judge, who considered the matter, took note of the Division Bench of this Court in W.P.(C).No.19484 of 2008, wherein, in a similar factual situation, the Court had found that in the absence of any material brought to its notice to suggest that the practice of Electropathy/Electro-Homeopathy was prohibited under law, the police could not interfere with the practice of Electropathy carried on by a citizen. The court reasoned that the principle of rule of law mandates that a citizen is free to do anything not prohibited by law, and if a citizen challenges State action, the State had to show the legal pedigree of its action.

(3.) In the appeal before us, we have heard Adv. Sri.Lal K. Joseph, the learned counsel for the appellant Council and Sri.A.T.Anil Kumar, the learned counsel for the 1st respondent/writ petitioner. We have also heard Sri.T.P.Sajid, the learned senior Government Pleader for the official respondent of the State.