A plea has been filed in the Patiala House Court seeking directions register an FIR against Baba Ramdev and Patanjali under the Indian Penal Code, Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, and Drugs and Cosmetics Act for allegedly making claims to cure COVID 19.
The complainant Tushar Anand, a practicing Advocate has submitted that at a press conference held on June 23, Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna had made claims that they have developed a medicine namely “Coronil” which fully cures a patient suffering from COVID 19.
The complainant has submitted that Baba Ramdev along with the other associated with Patanjali Ayurveda have acted jointly in a pre planned conspiracy to take undue advantage of their special status in the society by making false claims of having found a cure for COVID 19.
The complainant has further informed the Court that Patanjali was granted permission to make an immunity booster and not a medicine having cure of COVID 19.
Further, Patanjali has violated the AYUSH ministry’s directives dated April 24 according to which it is mandatory for an institution “to apprise the Ministry of AYUSH , Government of India about the research and developments.”
The complainant has stated that Baba Ramdev and others have violated the provisions of Section 33(E) (Misbranded Drugs) read with section 33(I) (Penalty for misbranded drugs) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 for the offence of “Misbranded Drugs”.
Further it has been alleged that the accused persons have also committed offence under Section 4 (Prohibition of misleading advertisements relating to drugs) and section 7 (penalty up to 6 months) of the Drugs and magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.
Moreover the accused persons have also violated Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 2018 according to which diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatments, or prevention of any disease, disorder, syndrome or condition cannot be advertised.
-India Legal Bureau