Patanjali Ayurved on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it has stopped the sale of the 14 products whose manufacturing licences were suspended by the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority in April.
The company, founded by Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna, told the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Sandeep Mehta that it has issued instructions to 5,606 franchise stores to withdraw these products.
The bench told the company to file an affidavit in two weeks confirming that posts and advertisements for its banned medicines have been removed from various media platforms.
The court, however, stressed that the advertisement industry should not suffer due to its earlier directions telling advertisers to file self-declaration forms on the type of ads.
The court had in May told the broadcasters that they need to file the self-declaration on the Broadcast Seva portal run by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
It had further ordered the Central government to establish a new portal for filing such self-declaration forms for advertisements in print media.
After this order, television, radio, and Internet associations filed applications to intervene in the proceedings saying that the court’s directions asking the advertisers to give a declaration regarding the nature of the ads was affecting the industry.
The court has now told the Centre to meet with stakeholders and senior officials of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to resolve issues faced by advertisers. It also said that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs should be made a party.
“We are also of the opinion that the industry (advertisement industry) should not suffer in any manner. The focus of this court has already been highlighted in previous orders and needs no repetition. The ministry is directed to continue the churning of ideas and have further meetings in this direction and file an affidavit making its recommendations,” the bench said.
With multiple parties being connected to the case, the scope of the petition expanded beyond misleading advertisements, the court observed, and appointed lawyer Shadan Farasat as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) to assist with the case.
IMA chief apologises
Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said its President RV Asokan has apologised for his remarks in an interview over certain observations made by the court. The association said that Asokan has published the apology on the IMA’s website and in its monthly journal.
Background
The court is hearing a petition filed by the IMA against Patanjali’s advertisements attacking allopathy and making claims about curing certain diseases.
Its order in the ongoing contempt proceedings against Yoga Guru Ramdev, his aide Balkrishna, and Patanjali Ayurved in the misleading advertisements case is reserved.
With multiple stakeholders in the case, the court will hear the contempt case on August 6 and the main case with new petitions on July 30.
Social media influencers and celebrities also found themselves in the thick of the Supreme Court’s lens as the court on May 7 said that they’ll share equal responsibility for endorsing products or services in misleading advertisements.
It all started on November 21, 2023, when Patanjali Ayurved co-founders Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna had assured the court that they would not make any “casual statements claiming medicinal efficacy or against any system of medicine”.
But, just a day later, on November 22, Ramdev held a press conference saying remedies for blood pressure were “lies spread by allopathy”.
First Published: Jul 09 2024 | 4:39 PM IST
