‘Taking country for a ride’: SC puts temporary ban on Patanjali ads for misleading claims

Nearly four months after the Supreme Court directed Patanjali Ayurved to withdraw “misleading” ads, it imposed a temporary ban on Baba Ramdev-owned company’s advertisements today, Bar and Bench reported. 

Saying that the “entire country is taken for a ride”, the top court ordered that Patanjali “cannot advertise or market any of their medicinal products which they claim would treat ailments specified in Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act”.

The bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said Patanjali has been making misleading claims that its medicines would cure certain diseases “despite no empirical evidence for the same”.

Hearing the plea filed by the Indian Medical Association, the court also issued a contempt of court notice to founder Baba Ramdev and CEO Acharya Balkrishna for breaching its previous orders and continuing to propagate false and misleading claims.

The top court also criticised the Modi government for its inaction. The bench told Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, “The entire country is taken for a ride. You wait for two years when the Acts says this [misleading advertisements] is prohibited.” 

The court had earlier asked the central government to hold consultations and give recommendations to curb such ads.

In November last year, the Supreme Court directed Patanjali to immediately stop its “false and misleading advertisements”, and also threatened to impose costs of Rs 1 crore for every false claim made in its ads.

Before that, in August 2022, the top court had questioned Ramdev over his alleged attempt to discredit allopathy and its doctors during Covid-19. 

Newslaundry earlier reported that Ramdev deceptively sold Coronil as cure for Covid during the pandemic. Read here. The self-styled yoga guru, who has established a gigantic retail empire, has been riding on the shoulders of Big Media. Read about it here.    

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