Patanjali Ayurved was banned from advertising medicines with ‘misleading claims’ during a Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday. The bench also came down heavily on the Central government for “sitting with eyes closed” while the entire country was “taken for a ride”. The apex court has issued contempt of court notices against founder Baba Ramdev and MD Acharya Balkrishna for flouting previous court orders and continuing to peddle misleading claims.
“The government is sitting with its eyes closed. This is very unfortunate. The government will have to take some immediate action,” NDTV quoted the Supreme Court as saying.
Meanwhile Patanjali Foods — part of the Baba Ramdev-led group — insisted that business operations and financial performance would not be impacted by the Supreme Court's observations.
“The observations of Supreme Court of India do not relate to Patanjali Foods Ltd (PFL) which is an independent listed entity and operates in the space of edible oil and food FMCG products only. The observations do not have any beating on the regular business operations or the financial performance of Patanjali Foods,” the company said.
The top court is hearing a plea of the Indian Medical Association alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev against the vaccination drive and modern medicines. The SC had previously threatened to impose a cost of ₹1 crore per false claim propagated in each advertisement.
The Bench also took exception to one of the advertisements published by Patanjali after the November last year order of the apex court. It has now warned the company and its officers against making media statements against any system of medicine in any form as stated in their undertaking on November 21 last year.
(With inputs from agencies)
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