The prominent Indian company that makes ayurvedic products, Patanjali, is in the news for its false and misleading advertisements in the healthcare sector.
The Supreme Court of India issued a Contempt Notice to Patanjali Ayurved, co-founded by Ramdev Baba and CEO Balkrishna. The notice was issued on 27th February 2024 in response to allegations made by the company of misleading consumers with its advertisements, which say that its medicines cure different diseases.
The petitions were filed earlier in 2022 regarding the same issue. On this, the Supreme Court questioned the Centre for not taking any action on the misleading and false promises since then.
Now again, the situation reemerged with the case filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) against Patanjali Ayurved and Ramdev Baba. The IMA claimed that the Patanjali company made false advertisements about their products and discouraged people from using modern medicine, which has scientific evidence.
The Supreme Court bench, comprising of judges Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Hima Kohli, in a hearing on 27th February, stated that Patanjali failed in keeping the promises they made to refrain from making false claims and advertisements for their medicines. The bench expressed strong dissatisfaction against the false claims and stated that the "entire country is being taken for a ride" and that the government was "sitting with its eyes closed" concerning the issue.
The next steps in this case remain to be determined, as Patanjali Ayurved has been granted time to respond to the contempt notice.