The founders of Patanjali Ayurved, Yoga guru Bama Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna have tendered an unconditional and unqualified apology before the Supreme Court over the company’s misleading advertisements and claims targeting evidence-based medicine.
Baba Ramdev and Balkrishna filed separate affidavits before the Apex Court on April 6, seeking pardon for the breach of their earlier statement that they would not telecast or publish such misleading ads. They further assured to always uphold the majesty of the law and justice.
Ramdev further apologised for his November 2023 press conference, wherein he had spoken about the case after the Court had passed strictures against Patanjali Ayurved. He assured the top court of the country that he would comply with the Supreme Court’s directives ‘in letter and spirit’.
The development followed the April 2 order of the Supreme Court, reprimanding Patanjali Ayurved over its earlier apology affidavit, which was dubbed as casual and a lip service.
The Bench sought apology from the Patanjali founders for their failure to stop carrying misleading advertisements to promote their ayurvedic products by disparaging modern medicine.
The Bench passed the order while hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) against an alleged smear campaign carried out by Patanjali and its founder against the Covid-19 vaccination drive and modern medicine.
The Apex Court had earlier imposed a temporary ban on such advertisements and issued contempt of court notices to the company and Balkrishna for making misleading claims.
In November 2023, the Supreme Court had threatened to impose costs of Rs 1 crore per false claim made in each advertisement for Patanjali Ayurved products that claimed to cure diseases. Patanjali was directed not to publish false advertisements in the future.
However, since such ads were published despite the warning, the Apex Court imposed a temporary ban on Patanjali Ayurved’s ads, while lamenting that the company has been taking the country for a ride.
On March 19, the Apex Court directed Ramdev and Balkrishna to be personally present before it after the latter failed to file a reply to the show-cause notice in the contempt proceedings.