The Supreme Court on Tuesday condemned Indian Medical Association President Dr RV Asokan over the nature of apology tendered by him in relation to his contemptuous remarks against the Court in an interview.
The Bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Sandeep Mehta observed that Dr Asokan was inviting more trouble for himself.
The Apex Court adjourned the matter to August 27, after Senior Advocate PS Patwalia, appearing for IMA, submitted that Dr Asokan would take appropriate steps to purge himself of the contempt.
The Bench remarked that the IMA President cannot wash his hands off by sending an apology to the Press Trust of India. The apology has to be published in all newspapers which carried his interview. Also, it should be done using Dr Asokan’s own funds and not the funds of IMA, it added.
The Bench made the observation after the Senior Counsel submitted that the IMA President’s comments were a response to two questions asked during the interview with PTI, which lasted for about 1.5 hours and the IMA was not publishing advertisements.
IMA had filed a case against Patanjali Ayurved for its “misleading” claims and “disparaging” advertisements against the Allopathic system of medicines.
Patanjali had subsequently given an undertaking to the court that no such statements would be made in future. However, the misleading ads continued, leading the court to initiate contempt proceedings against Patanjali, its MD Acharya Balkrishna and co-founder Baba Ramdev for continuing to publish misleading medical advertisements in breach of the court undertaking..