Supreme Court pulls up Patanjali for misleading ads, issues contempt notice

The Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurveda and its Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna on Tuesday for disobeying its order regarding misleading advertisements of its products, saying that the court will take infractions very seriously.

A bench of justices Hima Kohli and A Amanullah issued a notice to Patanjali Ayurved and its managing director asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.

The bench also cautioned Patanjali Ayurved and its officers from making any statements adverse to any system of medicine in the media, both print and electronic, in any form as they said in their undertaking before the court earlier.

On November 21 last year, the counsel representing the company had assured the apex court that henceforth there shall not be any violation of law, especially relating to advertising or branding of products, and no casual statements claiming medicinal efficacy of Patanjali products or against any system of medicine will be released to the media in any form.

The apex court had then cautioned the company, co-founded by Ramdev and dealing in herbal products, against making "false" and "misleading" claims in advertisements about its medicines as cure of several diseases.

The top court is hearing a plea of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev against the vaccination drive and modern medicines.