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SC raps Patanjali over ads against modern medicine
The Supreme Court reprimands yoga instructor Ramdev and his firm Patanjali for misleading advertisements claiming to cure all diseases and disparaging modern medicine. The court asks the government to create a mechanism to stop such ads and threatens to impose a fine of ₹1 crore on each product. The court also calls for a comprehensive solution to deal with misleading claims. The matter has been posted for February 5, 2023.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reprimanded yoga instructor Ramdev and his firm Patanjali Ayurved Limited over misleading advertisements making unverified claims to cure all kinds of diseases, and for making disparaging remarks against modern medicine and discrediting proponents of allopathy.
A division bench headed by justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah also asked the Union government to come out with a comprehensive mechanism to stop such misleading advertisements.
“This is blatant infraction of law what you (Patanjali) are doing. We will take it very seriously if you keep doing this and even impose cost to the extent of ₹1 crore on every product,” the bench, also comprising justice PK Mishra, said.
The strongly-worded reprimand against the yoga instructor came as the court was dealing with a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), seeking an order against all misleading advertisements claiming to have a cure for all ailments and discrediting doctors in the process by doubting the efficacy of allopathic medicines. The petition made Patanjali a respondent, referring to its July 2022 advertisement in leading newspapers claiming that health benefits from allopathy are “nowhere to be seen” and those dependent on it are suffering from “hellish pangs” of adverse health effects.
Stating that it did not intend to enter into the allopathy vs ayurveda debate, the bench asked the Centre to come out with a “comprehensive solution” to deal with all kinds of misleading claims.
“We want to find a real solution to the problem of misleading advertisements making false claims that it can cure a particular disease,” the bench said and asked additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj to deal with the issue in a holistic manner so that citizens are not misled by these false claims.
The court posted the matter to February 5 next year.
Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, representing Patanjali, said the petition has tried to “suppress many facts” and presented “selective statements” by the company and Ramdev. Poovayya also assured the court that the firm will not publish any misleading statement or make any casual statement to the press on the issue agitated in the petition.
The IMA in its petition, filed in August last year, reproduced a series of “blatantly false” statements made by Ramdev and accused him of running a concerted campaign to malign doctors and create doubts in the minds of people about allopathy.
“Patanjali claims to have a permanent solution for lifestyle disorders, incurable, chronic and genetic diseases, skin diseases, arthritis, cervical spondylitis, asthma, among others which is an infraction of law,” senior advocate PS Patwalia, appearing for IMA along with advocate Prabhas Bajaj, said.
The doctors’ association argued that such unabated misinformation campaign against allopathy is continuing with complete inaction and indifference by the state authorities.
Section 3 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectional Advertisements) Act, 1954, prohibits any advertisement claiming the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any of the diseases involving lifestyle diseases.
Patanjali’s claim to eradicate asthma was in direct contravention to the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945, the petition added.
The IMA also submitted in the court that while every commercial entity such as Patanjali has a right to promote its own products, the continuous, systematic and unabated spread of misinformation regarding allopathy should stop.
In June 2020, Ramdev held a press conference announcing that his company had developed a cure for Covid-19. Later, the Centre issued a notice to Patanjali, asking it not to make such false claims.
At another public event in May 2021, during the peak of the second wave of pandemic, Ramdev called allopathy a “stupid and bankrupt science” and falsely claimed that over 1,000 doctors have died after taking both doses of the vaccine.
The IMA had also registered criminal cases against Ramdev and Patanjali over his false claims in several states. The yoga instructor had approached the Supreme Court in a separate proceeding seeking consolidation of all criminal cases at a single place. A defamation suit filed by the IMA against Ramdev is pending before the Delhi high court.
In January this year, Ramdev filed an affidavit before the top court pointing out that in June 2021, he had hailed practitioners of modern medicine as “God’s envoys” and appealed people to get vaccinated.
