The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Baba Ramdev to come forward and speak for himself on why the court should not initiate contempt proceedings against him for his irresponsible behaviour. The court pulled him up for advertising cure for diseases that are listed as incurable diseases in the Drugs And Magic Remedies Act. The court said that given Ramdev's past track record, they were not fully convinced about his apology and said the top court will think if it wants to accept Ramdev's apology or not.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Ramdev said that he is willing to make a public apology. Justice Hima Kohli said that the court wants to hear what Ramdev and Balkrishna have to say and asked them to come forward. Ramdev spoke in the court and said that he wants to offer unconditional apology and regrets his statements. Ramdev further explained that as Ayurveda and Allopathy are mostly pitched against each other, he got excited and got carried away and made those statements.
'You Are Not So Innocent': SC Asks Ramdev If Patanjali's Legal Wing Did Not Tell Him Of Consequences
The top court told Ramdev that he has a history of not following court orders. The bench further asked Ramdev if Patanjali Ayurveda's legal department did not warn him against publishing misleading advertisements.
"We will think about whether we should accept your apology or not. You have a history of not following court orders or standing by your undertaking in the court," the bench observed. The bench told Ramdev that he can't claim to be innocent and say he was unaware of the consequnces when he has such a big company with its own legal department.
The court noted that to redeem themselves, the proposed contemnors have proposed to take some steps unilaterally and have requested for one weeks time. The court granted Ramdev and Balakrishna that time to take appropriate steps. The next hearing is on April 23.
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What Is The Case Against Baba Ramdev, Patanjali Ayurveda
The contempt case against Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved MD Acharya Balakrishna stems from the Indian Medical Associations (IMA) petition in the top court seeking direction to the Centre, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), and the CCPA (Central Consumer Protection Authority of India) to take action against advertisements and campaigns that promote the AYUSH system by downgrading Allopathy.
The petition raises concern over misleading statements by Baba Ramdev against allopathy and false claims by Patanjali of curing certain diseases in advertisements. The IMA has contended that despite the Ministry of AYUSH signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ASCI for monitoring misleading advertisements, Ramdev continues to flout norms.
As part of this case Ramdev had given an undertaking in the court that he will not make disparaging statements about other forms of medicine to promote his products. But, he held a press conference the very next day after giving undertaking in court.
When the top court took cognisance of the press conference and misleading advertisements by Baba Ramdev and Patanjali, it issued a show cause notice to him for contempt of court proceedings and sought his response as to why he should not be charged with contempt of court. Ramdev again drew the wrath of the top court when he did not file a response for the first time and then later the court found forgery of air tickets in his Apology affidavit. The court has so far given him three chances to apologise.