Three people, including the assistant manager of Patanjali Ayurved, received fines and six-month prison sentences from the chief judicial magistrate in Pithoragarh, according to a Live Hindustan report.
This followed the failure of a Patanjali food product in a quality test at a testing laboratory in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, it added.
Quality Concerns Raised
As per the report, a food safety inspector flagged issues with Patanjali Navratna Elaichi Soan Papdi at Lila Dhar Pathak's shop in Berinag, Pithoragarh, in 2019. Samples were collected, and notices were sent to Kanaha Ji Distributor in Ramnagar and Patanjali Ayurved in Haridwar. By December 2020, the Rudrapur testing laboratory notified the state food safety department of the product's substandard quality.
Legal cases were then filed against businessman Lila Dhar Pathak, distributor Ajay Joshi, and Patanjali assistant manager Abhishek Kumar. Each received a six-month prison sentence and fines of ₹5,000, ₹10,000, and ₹25,000, respectively.
Supreme Court Scrutiny
The Supreme Court of India (SC) on May 14 reserved its order on a contempt plea against Baba Ramdev, Acharya Balkrishna, and others in the Patanjali misleading advertisements case.
The apex court bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also exempted Ramdev and Balkrishna from personal appearance in the case. at the next hearing.
Further, the SC granted Patanjali time to file affidavits indicating the steps taken to recall ads of the products of which licenses have been suspended and for recalling medicines.
The affidavit, to be filed in three weeks, will also explain the steps taken to recall Patanjali products whose licenses have been suspended, as per Bar and Bench.
Further, during the same hearing, the SC also heavily criticized the Indian Medical Association (IMA) President Dr RV Asokan for interviewing the press about its orders in the case.
