The Supreme Court today came own heavily on the Centre for not taking any action in a case of “misleading and false” advertisements by the Patanjaliu Ayurved – which is co-owned by yoga guru Ramdev.
“The government is sitting with its eye closed,” the Supreme Court said.
The Supreme Court said that the entire country is being misled through such advertisement. “This is very unfortunate. The government will have to take some immediate action,” the bench said.
The bench directed the company to stop all electronic and print advertisements of its medicines with immediate effect.
The Supreme Court had in November last year cautioned Patanjali Ayurved against making “false” and “misleading” claims in advertisements about its medicines.
“What happened to this Guru Swami Ramdev Baba?… Ultimately we respect him as he popularised yoga. We all go for this. But, he should not criticise the other system. You see the type of advertisements accusing all the doctors as if they are killers or something. Huge advertisements (have been given),” the bench headed by the then CJI NV Ramana, since retired, had said.
The top court had asked the counsel appearing for the Centre to find a remedy to the issue of misleading medical advertisements.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had referred to several advertisements which allegedly projected the allopathy and the doctors in poor light, saying that “disparaging” statements have also been made by firms, engaged in the production of ayurvedic medicines, to mislead the general public.
These commercials say that the medical practitioners themselves are dying despite taking modern medicines, the counsel for the IMA had said.
