IMPORTANT POINT
Practitioners must possess recognized medical qualifications and be enrolled on a State Register to practice Homeopathy outside their registered State.

JUDGMENT :

Manish Choudhury, J.

All the three intra-court appeals have arisen out of a common Judgment and Order dated 20.09.2023 passed by the learned Single Judge in a batch of writ petitions including W.P.[C] no. 180/2019, W.P.[C] no. 05/2020 and W.P.[C] no. 47/2020.

2. As the issues involved and raised are common and all the three intra-court appeals have arisen out of a common Judgment and Order, all the three appeals are taken up for consideration, as sought for and agreed to by the learned counsel for the parties.

3. The writ appellants in Writ Appeal no. 12/2023 were the writ petitioners in the writ petition, W.P.[C] no. 05/2020. In the writ petition, the writ appellants-writ petitioners have averred that they are Practitioners of Homeopathy on having obtained licences after registered themselves as Class ‘B’ Practitioners in the year : 1997-1998 with the Board of Homeopathic System Medicine, Nagaland [‘the Nagaland Board’, for short] under Section 9 of the Nagaland Homeopathic Medicine Act, 1997 [‘the Nagaland Act’, for short]. It has been averred that they had applied for registration as they were engaged in the practice of Homeopathic System of Medicine in the State of Nagaland for a period of not less than five years immediately before enactment of the Nagaland Act and as such, they were registered and granted licences as Class ‘B’ Homeopathic Practitioners under Section 9 of the Nagaland Act. The petitioners have further averred that they had passed an examination for obtaining the registration as Class ‘B’ Practitioners of Homeopathy. After getting themselves registered with the Nagaland Board, their licences had been renewed from time to time as Class ‘B’ Registered Practitioners on payment of requisite fees upto the year : 2012-2013. It was in the year : 2012-2013 the Nagaland Board stopped renewal of their licences purportedly at the behest of the Central Council of Homeopathy [‘the Central Council’, for short]. The petitioners have further stated that though their names were included in the State Register maintained by the Nagaland Board, their names were not registered in the Register maintained by the Central Council, that is, the Central Council of Homeopathy, which was later renamed as the National Commission for Homeopathy. They have further averred that due to non-renewal of their licences by the Nagaland Board, they had no alternative but to leave Nagaland as without renewal, they would not be able to continue their profession as Class ‘B’ Homeopathy Practitioners in the State of Nagaland.

4. The writ appellants in Writ Appeal no. 17/2023 were the writ petitioners in the writ petition, W.P.[C] no. 180/2019. In the writ petition, W.P.[C] no. 180/2019, the petitioners have contended that they received licences as Class ‘B’ Homeopathy Practitioners after their registration under Section 9 of the Nagaland Act with the Nagaland Board. Accordingly, their names continued in the Register, maintained by the Nagaland Board for Class ‘B’ Registered Homeopaths. They have stated that after getting registration with the Nagaland Board they continued their practices as Homeopathic Practitioners in Nagaland independently. During the subsequent years, the Nagaland Board renewed their licences at an interval of five years, from time to time, until 2013.

5. The writ appellants in Writ Appeal 14/2023 were the writ petitioners in W.P.[C] no. 47/2020. In the writ petition, W.P.[C] no. 47/2020, the petitioners have stated their case in an almost identical manner as the petitioners in W.P.[C] no. 180/2019. They have stated that they were in regular practice in the State of Nagaland for a period of not less than five years immediately before the coming into force of the Nagaland Act. They are Registered Class ‘B’ Homeopaths, who were granted licence under Section 9 of the Nagaland Act by the Nagaland Board.

6. All the afore-mentioned writ petitions were preferred to mount a challenge