Patanjali Misleading Ads Case: Supreme Court Accepts Ramdev And Balkrishna's Apology

The Supreme Court on Tuesday closed the contempt proceedings initiated against Patanjali Ayurved's Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna in the misleading ads fracas.

The court accepted the apology tendered by them for their actions. However, it warned both of them to not repeat the mistakes in future.

The case began in November last year, when the apex court issued a stern warning to Ramdev and his multinational conglomerate for downplaying the effects of modern medicine.

Some of Patanjali's commercials claimed its medicines could cure a number of illnesses, while simultaneously disparaging allopathic and modern medicine.

The court had said that it would issue a hefty penalty for all those misleading advertisements that promise to cure diseases such as asthma, obesity, and the like.

At the time, Patanjali told the court that it would make sure that going forward, no casual statements claiming medicinal efficacy against any system of medicine would be released to the media in any form.

However, a day after the court's stern remarks, Patanjali came out with a media statement saying that it was not making any "false advertisements or propaganda", regarding its products and that it would not object if the top court were to impose a fine or "even give us a death sentence" if found making misleading claims.

This prompted the apex court to come down on Acharya Balkrishna and Baba Ramdev with all guns blazing for openly flouting court orders.

This led Ramdev and Balkrishna to apologise for their actions numerous times and in various ways. The court did not cut them any slack, which triggered apologies in national newspapers and the recall of 14 drugs that were suspended by the state licensing authorities.