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Patanjali Ayurved's misleading ads case: Kerala Court issues a bailable warrant against Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna
This development comes after the Supreme Court warned States and Union Territories of contempt of action for not initiating proceedings against companies and individuals, who were responsible for misleading advertisements.
Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna approached the court to quash the proceedings against them where one of their argument was based on the violation of the limitation period, stated a Bar and Bench report.
Kerala Court issued a bailable warrant against Divya Pharmacy, an affiliated company of Patanjali Ayurved, its co-founder and yoga guru Baba Ramdev, and its managing director Acharya Balkrishna. This is regarding a case of misleading advertisements published in English and Malayalam newspapers. The next date of hearing is on February 1, 2025.
The complaint was considered based on the report of Drug Inspector under Section 3, 3 (b) and 3 (d) of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. The misleading ads claimed that Patanjali products could cure high blood pressure and diabetes.
The warrant, which was issued on January 16, the case was registered against them in Palakkad court on October 2024. The court had issued earlier summons for Ramdev and Balkrishna to appear before the court on January 16, and they failed to appear.
To note, a similar case is pending at the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kozhikode, where Ramdev and Balkrishna were asked to appear on June 3, 2024, which they failed to. Then, the court issued them a repeat summons order to appear on August 6, 2024, which again they did not adhere to or comply with. A similar case is registered against them in a court in Haridwar too.
In total, there are at least 10 cases registered against them in Kerala, where four are in Kozhikode, three in Palakkad, two in Ernakulam, and one in Thiruvananthapuram and in Uttarakhand (Haridwar).
This development comes after the Supreme Court warned States and Union Territories of contempt of action for not initiating proceedings against companies and individuals, who were responsible for misleading advertisements, further added the report.
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