Today (February 27, 2024), the Supreme Court (SC) of India issued a contempt notice to Patanjali Ayurved (co-founded by Baba Ramdev) and Acharya Balakrishna (Managing Director [MD] of Patanjali) for continuing to publish ‘misleading’ advertisements regarding medicinal cures. It said, “You had the courage and guts to come up with this advertisement after the order (delivered on November 21, 2023) of this Court! And then you come up with this advertisement. Permanent relief, what do you mean by permanent relief? Is it a cure?...we are going to pass a very, very strict order. You are tempting the Court.” The bench also criticized the Centre Government for not taking appropriate action for the same stating that “The entire country is taken for a ride! You wait for two years when the Acts say this is prohibited.” The matter was heard today by a two-judge bench constituting Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah.
During the court proceedings, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, Senior Advocate PS Patwalia, and Senior Advocate Vipin Sanghi argued before the bench for the Union Government, the Indian Medical Association, and the Patanjali Ayurved respectively. After hearing the contentions, the SC bench ordered, “All such false and misleading advertisements of Patanjali Ayurved have to stop immediately. The Court will take any such infraction very seriously, and the Court will also consider imposing costs to the extent of Rs. 1 crores on every product regarding which a false claim is made that it can ‘cure’ a particular disease.” Moreover, the SC cautioned Patanjali Ayurved not to make any statement related to any system of medicine and listed the matter for hearing after two weeks.