‘Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna should appear in the court…’, SC order in Patanjali misleading advertisement case
The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Ramdev in the misleading advertisement case of Ayurvedic company Patanjali Ayurved and asked him to appear before the court. The court has asked Ramdev why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him?
During the hearing, the court asked Ramdev’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, why have you not filed the reply yet? Now we will ask your client to appear in the court. We will also make Ramdev a party. Both Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna will have to appear in the court.
The court said that we are not going to postpone the hearing of the case. This thing is absolutely clear. Along with this, the court also reprimanded the Union Ministry of AYUSH and asked why did it file the reply a day before? On this, the Center told the court that they need more time to give a proper reply.
The Supreme Court said that the Managing Director of Patanjali will have to appear in the court on the next hearing. Along with this, the court also issued a notice to Swami Ramdev asking why he should not be prosecuted for contempt of court.
Let us tell you that earlier the Supreme Court had issued a notice of contempt of court to Patanjali Ayurveda in the case of misleading advertisement. Apart from Patanjali Ayurveda, notice was also given to Acharya Balkrishna, in which he was asked to file his reply within three weeks. But this was not answered.
Court has also reprimanded Patanjali products
Earlier, the Supreme Court had also reprimanded Patanjali’s products. The bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice A Amanullah had also criticized him for not following the earlier orders. Last year, the court had ordered the company to ban advertisements. In the month of November itself, the court had told Patanjali that if the order is not followed, then after investigation, a fine of Rs 1 crore each will be imposed on all the products of the company.
In fact, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had filed a petition in the Supreme Court calling the advertisements of Patanjali Ayurveda misleading.
What is IMA’s allegation?
IMA alleges that Patanjali had run a campaign regarding Covid-19 vaccination. On this, the court had warned that false and misleading advertisements by Patanjali Ayurveda should be stopped immediately. In the petition filed by the Indian Medical Association, it was said that allopathy medicines are being neglected due to the misleading advertisement of Patanjali.
IMA had said that Patanjali’s claims have not been verified and are a direct violation of laws like Drugs and Magic Remedies Act 1954 and Consumer Protection Act 2019. Patanjali Ayurveda had claimed that Corona can be treated with their products Coronil and Swasari. After this claim, the company was reprimanded by the Ministry of AYUSH and asked to immediately stop its promotion.
