Misleading ads: SC pulls up 'defiant' Ramdev, Balkrishna; Centre under fire too for failing to act during Covid

Acharya Balakrishna and Baba Ramdev

The Supreme Court on April 2 refused to exempt Patanjali Ayurved promoter Ramdev and managing director Acharya Balkrishna from personal appearance even as it came down hard on the Centre for failing to act against the company’s claims during Covid outbreak.

The court said Ramdev and Balakrishna’s affidavits apologising for violating their undertaking on advertisements for their medicinal products was mere “lip service”. It, however, refrained from passing any adverse order and granted them a week to file an affidavit.

The case will now come up for hearing on April 10.

“They owe a greater explanation to the public and the court for violating the law they way they did. They are not common citizens because they claimed to have done research," a bench led by Justice Hima Kohli told Ramdev and Balkrishna who were present in the court.

The court also pulled up the Centre for not doing enough to counter Patanjali’s advertisements during Covid.

“We have questions for AYUSH. You issued notice to Patanjali and they filed a reply and reply is not before us and we are wondering why,” the court said.

“COVID was in 2020 and you had yourself stated that these were at best supplement to the main medicine. This was not publicised at all. Nothing could move without Central go-ahead during COVID and you did nothing to make this known. It was a critical period,” the court told the Centre.

Appearing for Ramdev, senior advocate Balbir Singh told the court that his client would tender an unconditional apology to the court.  Ramdev's affidavit tendering the apology could not be filed on time, he added.

The court was miffed that the affidavit was not filed on time and said they had enough time to do so.

“Not just the Supreme Court, every order passed by the courts across this country has to be respected ... this is absolute defiance,” the court said. “You have to abide by undertaking given to court and you have broken every barrier.”

Pointing to discrepancies in the affidavit that the yoga guru was proposing to file, the court warned him of perjury.

In its order passed today, the court has impleaded the Drugs and License Department be also added as a party to the case to understand what action was taken to counter Patanjali's misleading advertisement.

The court had on March 19 asked Ramdev and Balkrishna to appear personally to respond to contempt proceedings initiated for continuing to run misleading advertisements that claimed to permanently cure several diseases.

The court said Patanjali continued misleading advertisements despite assuring the court in November that it would refrain from such advertisements.

In February, the court issued a contempt notice against Patanjali Ayurved and Balkrishna for publishing advertisements of products in violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and its Rules.

The orders were passed on a writ petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) over misleading advertisements by certain companies.