The Supreme Court on April 16 adjourned to April 23 the case pertaining to misleading advertisements by Patanjali ayurved, after it interacted with the company's promoter Ramdev and Managing Director (MD) Balakrishna offered to issue a public apology.
The court has, however, not decided on whether it should punish Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna for flouting its orders as the judges indicated that they will ponder over whether the apology of the duo should be accepted or not.
Before the court could begin hearing the case, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for Ramdev and Balakrishna, told the court that the duo is willing to tender an unconditional public apology to redeem themselves. Rohatgi further told the court that they were willing undertake certain voluntary actions as well.
The court however decided to first interact with Ramdev and Balakrishna before they could pass any order. After calling them to the front, justice Hima Kohli told Ramdev that while his service to yoga is appreciable his actions in releasing misleading advertisements were not. The court then proceeded to ask for their explanation.
“We are ready to tender an unconditional apology for whatever we wrong we have done. We should not have done what we did. We will ensure this does not happen again," Ramdev told Supreme Court on April 16.
Court said, "The medicines you advertised should not have been publicised as per law. It was wrong to hold a press conference. It was irresponsible." However, Ramdev consistently apologised to the court for these actions and urged it to not proceed with the contempt case.
“Your company is big and I am sure it has a legal department. Did they not warn your publicity department not to publish such misleading ads? We will think about whether we should accept your apology or not. You have a history of not following court orders or standing by your undertaking," added the top court.
Ramdev said there was no intention to malign any form of medicine.
"To promote what you believe in, why do you malign other forms of medicine? There is a way to do such things, you should have obtained scientific proof. Nobody has given you the right to malign other forms of medicine," said Supreme Court bench of justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah.
Both Ramdev and Balakrishna maintained that they were not justifying their actions but were only apologising to the court for the same.
The court had come down hard on the two during the previous hearing on April 10, refusing to accept their apologies.
Asserting that it does not want to be “generous” in the case, the two-judge bench said, "We do not accept it (unconditional apology). We decline to. We consider it a wilful, deliberate disobedience of the undertaking".
The court also pulled up the Uttarakhand government, where Patanjali Ayurved is based, for not taking action against the company for violation of law.
"The licensing inspector remained quiet, there is no report by the officer. The concerned officers should be suspended right now," the apex court said.
It questioned the state government about the "countless innocent people" who took Patanjali medicines believing that they would be cured.
The court said it was concerned about FMCG companies painting rosy pictures to consumers who suffer health issues.
It ordered all the officers who served as district Ayurvedic and Unani officers in Haridwar, the company headquarters, from 2018 till now should file replies on actions taken by them.
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.
A month earlier, the court issued a contempt notice against Patanjali 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 petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
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