HC rules in favour of electropathy practice TNN | Mar 31, 2013, 03.00 AM IST
KOCHI: Police should not disturb registered practitioners of electropathy unless a crime is committed due to its practice or any law is infringed, the Kerala high court has ordered.
Electropathy or electro-homeopathy, classified as alternative medicine, is a derivative of homeopathy that relies on remedies from non-poisonous plants. A division bench of Justices K M Joseph and K Ramakrishnan gave the order on a petition filed by an electropathy practitioner, K P Ismayil of Valanchery in Malappuram.
The petition said though electropathy was recognized by the government and Ismayil was a registered practitioner, the Valenchery PSI was frequently summoning him to the station and harassing him. The petitioner also produced copies of two orders from the Union ministry of health and family welfare recognizing electropathy and copies of five HC judgments clarifying electropathy was not banned.
L"If the petitioner continues with the practice of electropathy/electro-homeopathy without infringing on any other provisions of law, the police shall not interfere with the same. Unless the petitioner commits some cognizable offence by practising electropathy/electro-homeopathy, the police have no
power or authority to interfere with his practice or summon him to the police station with a view to preventing his practice of electropathy/electro-homeopathy," the court ordered.
It held the state or its agents shall not meddle in the petitioner's practice of electropathy/electro-homeopathy. However, the petitioner shall not use designations like 'doctor', etc. and he shall not practise modern medicine, homeopathy or any of the Indian systems of medicine. He shall not act in violation of the provisions of the Kerala Abkari Act or Drugs and Cosmetics Act or other relevant acts or rules, the judgment said.
