Noting that the court will not let them “off the hook” at this stage, the Supreme Court on Tuesday gave one week’s time to Patanjali founder Ramdev and managing director Acharya Balkrishna to tender a public apology in a case against the company for publishing misleading advertisements.

“You are doing good work but you can’t degrade allopathy,” the bench told Balkrishna, The Indian Express reported.

The duo said they were ready to tender a public apology after the court had refused to accept their apology last week, according to the report. 

The court had earlier pulled up the Uttarakhand state licensing authorities, including its joint director, for being “complicit”. It had asked the licensing officers – holding the post between 2018 and now – to file an affidavit within two weeks, explaining their “inaction”. 

This had come days after the Supreme Court slammed Patanjali’s “lip service” of apology, and questioned the central government’s role in granting “impunity” to the retail company. Notably, the Centre had said the matter is not its “domain”.