India, Oct. 18 -- The Supreme Court on Friday referred to a larger bench the question of whether doctors practising allopathy and AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) can be treated alike in terms of service conditions, particularly their age of retirement.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R. Gavai and justice K. Vinod Chandran said an authoritative pronouncement was required on the issue since past judgments of the top court had taken divergent views. The court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking parity in service conditions between practitioners of modern and traditional systems of medicine.

"We find there is an area of ambiguity insofar as service conditions, especially of retireme...