Patanjali misleading ads: SC orders Ramdev, Acharya Balkrishna to appear personally in court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed Patanjali Ayurved Ltd's co-founder Baba Ramdev and managing director Acharya Balkrishna to personally appear before it and explain why no reply was filed on a contempt notice issued against them over showing misleading advertisements on medicinal cures.

A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah observed that neither Ramdev nor Balakrishna had filed any response to the show cause notice issued to them by the court on misleading claims made in advertising their medicines. The court said they should personally appear within two weeks to explain their stand.

On February 27, the apex court imposed a ban on the advertisements being shown by Patanjali claiming a cure for some of the incurable diseases, which is not permitted under the rules as their authenticity was not proven. The bench further recorded that the medicines claimed to cure certain diseases as per Ramdev's company Patanjali’s version without any empirical evidence.

The court even noted that claims made by Baba Ramdev’s company had taken the country for a ride as those were misleading.

The matter relates to a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) alleging that a smear campaign was carried out by Baba Ramdev and his company against the COVID-19 vaccination and modern medicine.

In November last year, the court also directed Patanjali not to publish false advertisements in the future.

Patanjali had then undertaken not to publish advertisements making false claims about its products and targeting modern medicines and vaccinations, but it continued to do so, the court was told today.

As senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared before the Court on behalf of Ram Dev and his company, the bench noted that the appearance of senior counsels on Ram Dev's behalf showed that they were in fact aware of the show cause being issued in their names.

Noting that the Central government had also not tackled the issue of misleading advertisements, the court directed Baba Ramdev and others to personally appear before the court and reply to the show cause notice issued by the court.