The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on Patanjali Ayurved MD Acharya Balakrishna and Baba Ramdev for not filing a reply to a show cause notice explaining as to why contempt of court proceeding should not be initiated against them. The court also asked Baba Ramdev to be personally present in court for not filing reply to show cause notice in contempt proceedings against him over misleading advertisements of Patanjali Ayurved.
A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah allowed the Centre to file a fresh reply in the case.
The top court passed an order saying that Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balakrishna are prima facie in violation of Sections 3 and 4 of the Drugs and Remedies Act.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Patanjali Ayurved and asked the top court how Ramdev came into picture and asked for anonymous material relied on in last order to be put on record. He said, "my lords violation of the law is not contempt! What was relied on in open court has to be recorded, I have to advise my client then.. "
Justice Kohli asked Rohatgi: "How can you be in teeth of our orders?"
Justice Amanullah observed that no modification of any order was needed as of now.
Earlier, in Februrary, the Supreme Court issued a show cause notice to Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved and its Managing Director Acharya Balakrishna for causing contempt over running misleading advertisements despite giving undertaking to the top court.
The court took a prima facie view and said that the company has violated the November 2023 order by the Supreme Court and its own undertaking by carrying out misleading advertisements about curing diseases that fall under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act 1954. The top court also pulled up the Centre for not taking any action against Ramdev and his company.
The Indian Medical Associations (IMA) had moved 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.