Patanjali Misleading Ads Case: On Tuesday (August 13), the country’s highest court, the Supreme Court, imposed a stay on complaints against yoga guru Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna regarding Patanjali products. They had pledged to maintain honesty in their advertisements and statements about their medicines, and the court accepted their promise. This means that Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna are now free from the complaints. In fact, in 2022, the Indian Medical Association filed a petition in the Supreme Court citing derogatory comments made by Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurveda against modern medicine. According to the petition, Patanjali’s advertisements violated the ‘Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act’, 1954, and ‘Drugs and Cosmetics Rules’, 1954.
In November 2023, the Supreme Court had warned Patanjali to stop publishing misleading advertisements, but this did not happen. Following this, the top court issued a contempt notice to Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurveda’s MD Balkrishna.
Subsequently, in February 2024, after misleading advertisements from Patanjali continued, the court issued a contempt notice to the company and its MD. In March 2024, after no response to the contempt notice, the court ordered Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna to appear in person. In April 2024, Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna appeared in court and unconditionally apologized for their comments on allopathic medicines. Following this, on April 14, the Supreme Court reserved its order on the contempt notice.
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