Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna have submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, expressing regret for misleading advertisements and pledging to uphold the law.

Baba Ramdev expressed regret for not keeping his promise in a written statement, and promised not to make the same mistake again. He apologized for holding a press conference on November 22, 2023, and assured the court that he will follow its instructions and not release any similar advertisements.

Acharya Balkrishna also pledged to prevent the issuance of such deceptive advertisements in the future and promised to exercise more caution.

Court Directives and Reactions

In the previous hearing, the Supreme Court directed Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna to submit new affidavits within a week concerning the misleading advertisements by Patanjali Ayurveda. The bench of justices, Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, scheduled the next hearing for April 10 and instructed Ramdev and Balkrishna to be present.

Earlier, both Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna had apologized to the Supreme Court for violating its order against misleading advertisements for Patanjali’s medicinal products. However, the court expressed serious concerns over their apology, stating that they had breached the commitments made to the court.

In a previous hearing, the Supreme Court had summoned Acharya Balkrishna, Managing Director of Patanjali Ayurved, and Baba Ramdev for failing to respond to a show cause notice in contempt proceedings against them over the company's misleading advertisements.

Violation of Supreme Court’s Order

The court strongly objected to Patanjali Ayurveda's failure to respond to the show cause notice. The Supreme court observed that the company has prima facie violated the court’s order dated November 2023 where it cautioned against misleading advertisements about its medicines.

The court also restrained Patanjali Ayurved from advertising or branding of their products specified as treating disease under the drugs norms and also cautioned it from making any statements against any system of medicine in the media.

Supreme Court
Image : LiveLaw

Indian Medical Association’s Plea

The court was dealing with an Indian Medical Association plea seeking to frame guidelines for prohibiting false and misleading advertisements in relation to allopathy and modern medicine.

IMA, a registered Society, has more than 3,30,000 medical doctors as its members all over the country.

The petition also raised the issue that the campaign of misguidance, misinformation and disparagement against the modern system of medicine.

IMA, in their plea, had sought to pass an order directing the Centre and others to immediately take strict and prompt action, in accordance with law, for the violation of the provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 by the repeated acts of omission and commission of Respondent Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. including by publishing advertisements all over the country making illegal and prohibited claims.

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