Baba Ramdev's "poisonous medicines of allopathy" comment comes 2 days after SC drops contempt charges
The contempt proceedings against Baba Ramdev began last year when the Indian Medical Association filed a petition against Patanjali's misleading ads attacking allopathy.
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Soon after the Supreme Court of India dropped its contempt of court charges against Baba Ramdev and his company Patanjali Ayurved over the misleading advertising claims that attacked allopathy, his anti-allopathy remarks resumed.
It is to be noted that the contempt proceedings against Ramdev began last year after a petition was filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) against Patanjali's misleading ads that attacked allopathy and made claims about curing certain diseases.
The case filed by IMA alleged that Ramdev, without data, was spreading misinformation against allopathy.
On August 13, the top court noted that "efforts have been made by him to take steps to make amends."
Only two days after, while speaking on Independence Day, Ramdev said, "...the dream of medical independence is still a major dream because by consuming the poisonous medicines of allopathy, crores of people are dying every year..."
"A major ideological war is going on through social media. This is destroying India's children and youth....on the occasion of 78th Independence Day, Patanjali has pledged that besides political, educational, medical, economical, ideological and cultural independence, we will help bring freedom from diseases, drugs and lust in this country," he added.
On August 13, the bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah closed the contempt of court proceedings against Patanjali Ayurved and its co-founders Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna while accepting the apology tendered by the parties after they took steps to rectify their mistake.
However, they warned that the apex court could reopen the proceedings if the parties do anything in the future in violation of court orders.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Vipin Sanghi along with Simranjeet Singh and Gautam Talukdar, AOR, Athena Legal, appeared for Patanjali, Balkrishna and Ramdev in this case.
It is to be noted that both Ramdev and Balakrishna have repeatedly apologised in the top court and have published apologies in multiple newspapers across the country.
On November 21, 2023, the SC reprimanded the company, in response of which Patanjali had assured that it would refrain from such ads. "The entire country was being taken for a ride through such misleading advertisements," the court had then remarked.
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However, a day later Ramdev made statements including "remedies for blood pressure were lies spread by allopathy”. Later, in December, another unlisted firm by Balkrishna issued a similar advertisement.
In February, noting how the misleading ads continued, the apex court issued contempt notices and later sought the personal appearance of Balkrishna and Ramdev after the reply to the contempt notice was not filed.
In April, both of them appeared in the court and had issued 'unconditional apology'. The court, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the language and its size of the apology issued in the newspaper, after which Patanjali published another apology.
