The Delhi High Court has stopped Patanjali Ayurved from showing or publishing an advertisement that called other chyawanprash brands “dhoka” (deception). The court also ordered Patanjali to remove the ad from all TV, online, and print platforms within three days.

The court said that the ad gave the wrong impression that only Patanjali’s chyawanprash is genuine and all others are fake, which is misleading and unfair. It said such claims “disparage” or insult all other chyawanprash makers who follow proper ayurvedic laws and traditions.

The order came after Dabur India filed a complaint against Patanjali, saying the company’s 25-second ad hurt its reputation. In the advertisement titled “51 herbs. 1 truth. Patanjali Chyawanprash!”, a woman tells her child “Chalo dhoka khao” (let’s eat deception), and then Baba Ramdev appears, saying that “most people are fooled in the name of chyawanprash.”

The high court said that since the ad featured Ramdev, a popular and influential figure, viewers were likely to believe his claim and think that other chyawanprash brands are fake. It added that the ad’s message clearly aimed to discredit other brands, including Dabur, which is the market leader in the chyawanprash segment.

The court noted that Dabur had a strong case and that allowing the ad to continue would cause irreparable harm to the company’s reputation and business. Therefore, it issued an interim injunction (temporary ban) against Patanjali, stopping it from running the advertisement in any form.

Patanjali argued that the ad was simply a creative expression meant to promote its own product and that commercial advertising is protected under freedom of speech (Article 19(1)(a)). However, the court disagreed, saying the ad went beyond acceptable marketing and misled consumers by calling all other chyawanprash brands “deceptive.”

The court said that while companies can praise their own products, they cannot insult or misrepresent competitors’ products. It also recalled that earlier, in July, another judge had ordered Patanjali to delete similar misleading lines from one of its chyawanprash ads.