New Delhi, 09 April 2024: Yoga guru Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurveda Limited MD Acharya Balkrishna have tendered an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court over the advertisements issued by the company making tall claims about its products. In two separate affidavits filed in the court, Ramdev and Balkrishna have also apologized for violating the statement recorded in the apex court’s order of November 21 last year.
It is worth noting that in the order of November 21, 2023, the apex court had said that the counsel representing Patanjali Ayurveda had assured it that from now on no law would be violated, especially relating to the advertisement or branding of the products manufactured by Patanjali and further, no statement making medicinal claims or against any system of medicine would be released in the media in any form.
I regret my mistake – Baba Ramdev
The non-compliance of the assurance and subsequent media statements irked the apex court, which later issued a notice to him to show cause as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him. In his affidavit filed in the apex court, Ramdev said that I unconditionally apologise in connection with the issue of advertisements. He said, I regret this mistake and I want to assure the court that it will not be repeated. He said that the order will be complied with and no such advertisement will be issued.
The IMA alleged that Patanjali had run a defamatory campaign against the COVID-19 vaccination. On this, the court had warned that false and misleading advertisements by Patanjali Ayurveda should be stopped immediately. A fine of up to Rs 1 crore was expected for each product making false claims of curing certain diseases. Ramdev, who is facing criminal cases filed by the IMA for his controversial remarks on allopathic pharmaceuticals during the COVID-19 pandemic, had approached the Supreme Court to quash the cases. Ramdev has been booked under sections 188, 269 and 504 of the IPC for spreading misleading information about medicines used by the medical fraternity on social media.
