Patanjali misleading ads case: SC reserves judgment in contempt notice against Ramdev, Balkrishna

Supreme Court on Baba Ramdev and Achrya Balakrishna

The Supreme Court on May 14 reserved judgment against Patanjali Ayurved's promoter yoga guru Ramdev and managing director (MD) Balakrishna in the case pertaining to misleading ads of drugs made by the company.

Ramdev and Balkrishna sought time to file affidavit regarding steps taken to recall advertisement for medicines for which licence has been revoked and the apex court granted them three weeks and exempted them from personal appearance for now.

Supreme Court questioned the president of Indian Medical Association Dr Asokan for giving an interview to the press on Supreme Court's orders in the case. “You do exactly the same thing Patanjali did. You are not a layman, don’t you know the consequences of such things? You can’t sit on your couch lamenting the order of the court," the court observed.

“What kind of example are you setting for 3.5 lakh doctors who are a part of the association” Supreme Court asked the IMA president.

Supreme Court pulled up state licensing authorities for not acting proactively in clamping down on misleading advertisements on medicine. SC said, “Don’t sit in the comfort of your office.”

The top court called for an affidavit from all states on action taken on complaints, and nature of suo moto action taken to ensure there are no misleading advertisements by pharma companies and asks them to file within four weeks.

The court further grilled the inspector on Uttarakhand State licensing authority's inspector on the action he had taken to curtail misleading advertisements. However the case has now been deferred to July 9 owing to paucity of time.

On April 30, Patanajali's lawyers told the court that the company published 322 apologies in newspapers over advertisements that made false claims about its products.

The top court also said that there has been a marked improvement in the attitude of the management. “There has been a marked improvement. There was only Patanjali earlier, now there are names. We appreciate that. They have understood,” the court said, referring to the apologises carrying names of Ramdev and Balakrishna.

During an earlier hearing, the court asked the duo if the public apology they published were as big as the company's advertisements. The court had come down hard on the two and refused to accept their apology.

Saying it didn't want to be "generous" in the case, the two-judge bench said on April 10, "We do not accept it (unconditional apology). We decline to. We consider it a wilful, deliberate disobedience of the undertaking".

It ordered all the officers who served as district Ayurvedic and Unani officers in Haridwar, the company's headquarters, since 2018 to submit actions taken by them.

The court on March 19 asked Ramdev and Balkrishna to appear personally to response to contempt proceedings for continuing to run misleading advertisements.

The court issued a contempt notice against them 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).

The case has since been widened to other FMCG companies' exaggerating the health benefits of their products, the conduct of doctors and their role in promoting such goods.