The Supreme Court on Tuesday 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.
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, Bar and Bench reported.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev and his company against the COVID-19 vaccination drive and modern medicine.
