HC orders Patanjali to deposit ₹50 Lakh for breach of injunction

Bombay high court directs Patanjali Ayurved to deposit ₹50 lakh for persistent breach of court order restraining sale of camphor product by Baba Ramdev's company.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday directed Patanjali Ayurved Ltd to deposit an amount of ₹50 lakh with a court officer, after noticing that the company promoted by Baba Ramdev has persistently breached an August 2023 order restraining it from selling a camphor product.

New Delhi: Patanjali Ayurved co-founder Baba Ramdev arrives to appear before the Supreme Court, in New Delhi, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (PTI Photo) (PTI04_30_2024_000023A) (PTI)

A single judge bench of justice RI Chagla has ordered Patanjali Ayurved to deposit the amount with the Prothonotary and Senior Master of the high court within a week.

Acting on an intellectual property rights suit filed by Mangalam Organics Ltd, the court had on August 30, 2023, restrained Patanjali Ayurved from selling the camphor product.

Earlier this year, Mangalam Organics filed a plea, pointing out that Patanjali Ayurved was manufacturing as well as selling the camphor product and the product was available for sale at Patanjali Mega Store in Virar.

Mangalam Organics also pointed out that sale of the impugned camphor product was borne out from the invoices from March 10, 2024 to April 28, 2024 and that the products showed date of manufacturing of the product as March 2024.

On June 21, when the pleas came up for hearing, a representative of Patanjali Ayurved filed an affidavit, tendering unconditional apology “with folded hands” and claimed that the sale of the camphor product at the mega store in Virar was “inadvertent and un-intentional.” It added that the company had immediately intimated the mega store to stop the sale of the Patanjali Camphor Cone.

However, Mangalam Organics, the world’s largest camphor manufacturer, stated that the claim of inadvertent sale was false and misleading, and Patanjali Ayurved was in willful breach of the injunction order.

On Monday, when the matter came up for hearing before justice Chagla, the company based in Haridwar admitted on affidavit that it has been supplying the camphor product even after the injunction order passed by the high court on August 30, 2023, and sold ₹49.57 lakh of the product after the injunction order. It added that ₹025.94 lakh worth of stock was still lying with their wholesalers, distributors and authorised stores.

“Having considered that the Defendant No. 1 (Patanjali Ayurved) in the said affidavit dated 2nd July 2024 has itself admitted that it has been supplying the impugned camphor products post the injunction order, and which according to Defendant No. 1, continued till 24th June 2024, there is an admission as to the breach of the injunction order having been committed by Defendants for which the Defendants would necessarily have to purge the contempt of the injunction order,” justice Chagla said, referring to the admission.

The judge also noticed that the sale of the product was continued not only after the injunction order, but even after Patanjali Ayurved filed an affidavit stating that it was inadvertent and tendered an unconditional apology, and, in fact, it continued till the date of hearing, July 8. “Such persistent breach of the injunction order dated 30th August 2023 by Defendant No. 1 cannot be tolerated by this court,” the court said.

It has now posted the matter for further hearing on July 19.