Supreme Court raps Patanjali, served contempt notice

The Supreme Court today came down heavily on the Centre for not taking any action in a case of "misleading and false" advertisements by the Patanjali Ayurved - which is co-owned by yoga guru Ramdev."The government is sitting with its eyes closed," the bench said.

The Supreme Court said that "entire country was being taken for a ride" through such misleading advertisements."This is very unfortunate. The government will have to take some immediate action," the bench said. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has served a contempt of court notice to Patanjali Ayurved and Acharya Balakrishnan for their involvement in spreading misleading advertisements across various media platforms. They have been granted a three-week period to respond to the notice.

The bench directed the company to stop all electronic and print advertisements of its medicines giving misleading" information with immediate effect. This ruling follows a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association against Patanjali Ayurved's alleged dissemination of misleading advertisements.

During the hearing, Justices Hima Kohli and A. Amanullah criticised Patanjali Ayurved for releasing advertisements despite previous court orders issued last year. In November 2023, the Supreme Court warned Patanjali that it would be fined Rs 1 crore if a false claim is made that its products can "cure" certain diseases.