Patanjali's Apology Fails to Impress Supreme Court, To Hear The Case Again Next Week

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the apology tendered by Patanjali Ayurved's Baba Ramdev for violating court's order restraining the conglomerate from advertising certain medicinal products and will hear the case again on April 10.

"We are unhappy with your apology," the Supreme Court during the hearing, pointing out that all of Patanjali's advertisements are directly confronting this court, and that they were expected to make sure that their commitment would be upheld both in its exact wording and in its intent.

The court also noted the fact that the affidavit containing the apology was not filed before the court on time even after having ample time to do so.

In addition, the court came down heavily on the union government as well. It said that during peak COVID, the union had itself said that Patanjali medicines were only a supplement to the main medicines. However, the same was not published anywhere.

"It was a crucial period and union did nothing to publicize it", the court said.

It added that the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act does not contemplate a warning for a gross violation of the act. As a result, the court added the drugs and license department as a party to the case to understand what was done to counter Patanjali's misleading advertisements.

The court has asked both Ramdev and Patanjali's Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna to reappear in court next week.

The Supreme Court was hearing a lawsuit filed by the Indian Medical Association, who argued that Ramdev was running an adversarial campaign against the Covid vaccine and contemporary medical practices.

The top court in November issued strong caution to Ramdev and his multinational conglomerate, for downplaying the effects of modern medicine.

At that point, Patanjali assured the court that it would not release any unofficial statement to the media claiming the medicinal efficacy of any system of medicine.

However, a day after the court’s stern warning, Patanjali came out with a media statement saying that it was not making any "false advertisements or propaganda" regarding its products and that it would not object if the top court were to impose a fine or "even give us a death sentence", if found making misleading claims.

Patanjali’s move led the court to issue a contempt notice to Patanjali and Balkrishna, for openly disregarding its directives, as the company continued with its advertisements, despite giving assurances otherwise.

On March 19, Yoga guru Ramdev and Balkrishna were ordered by the Supreme Court to appear for a hearing on Tuesday, in response to the company's failure to reply to a notice issued in contempt proceedings involving the firm's product marketing and their purported therapeutic benefits.

Balkrishna, thereafter, offered an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court on March 21 for promoting the company's herbal remedies, stating they were effective in treating a number of critical illnesses, and disparaging other medical systems.