The Managing Director of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, Acharya Balkrishna, has tendered an unqualified apology before the Supreme Court for publishing misleading advertisements regarding medicinal cures in breach of an undertaking given to the Court, Live Law reported.
This comes a day after the Supreme Court directed self-styled yoga guru and businessman Baba Ramdev to be personally present before the top court after he failed to file a reply to a show cause notice in the contempt proceedings initiated against Patanjali Ayurved for its misleading advertisements.
Extending an “unqualified apology”, Balkrishna said the company will “ensure that such advertisements are not issued in the future”.
Ramdev and Patanjali Chairman Acharya Balkrishna were prima facie in violation of Sections 3 and 4 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, noted a Bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah.
In the previous hearing, the apex court had imposed a temporary ban on advertisements of the Patanjali Ayurved’s medicines, and issued contempt notices to its founders Ramdev and Balkrishna for making misleading claims.
Supreme Court had criticised Union government for not tackling misleading advertisements despite the present petition against the same having been filed in 2022. It had also lamened that Patanjali has been taking the country for a ride by falsely claiming that its medicines cure certain diseases despite no empirical evidence for the same.
The Court had in November threatened to impose costs of ₹1 crore per false claim made in each advertisement for Patanjali Ayurved products that claim to cure diseases.
