The Supreme Court on Tuesday, February 27, slammed Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved brand of medicines and imposed a ban on their advertisements. A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah called the advertisements ‘misleading’ and issued a contempt of court notice to Patanjali’s founders Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna. The court was hearing a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) alleging that Ramdev and his company carried out a smear campaign against the COVID-19 vaccination drive and modern medicine.
Here are some of the observations made by the top court while passing the interim order:
“You had the courage and guts to come up with this advertisement after the order of this Court! And then you come up with this advertisement. ‘Permanent relief’; what do you mean by 'permanent relief' to the diseases? It means only two things - either death or cure,” the bench said, responding to an ad by Patanjali.
The SC also pulled up the Union government for not taking action against the misleading advertisements despite the IMA filing the petition in 2022. "The entire country has been taken for a ride! For two years you wait when the Drugs Act says this is prohibited?" the Court said.
"Respondents [Patanjali] are restrained from advertising and branding their marketed medicinal products specified as treating diseases/ailments as in the rules, until further orders… They are cautioned from making any statements adverse to any medicine system in any form in print or other media."
“There cannot be prima facie any defence of the ads showing cure for Blood Pressure and diabetes,” the court said while pulling up the AYUSH Ministry as they too failed to take action.
Patanjali, while promoting their products, had published a half-page advertisement titled ‘Misconceptions spread by Allopathy: Save yourself and the country from the misconceptions spread by pharma and medical industry’ in July 2022. The IMA had then approached the court, arguing that the baseless claims made by Patanjali are in direct violation of the Drugs & Other Magic Remedies Act, 1954, and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.