Ahead Of Supreme Court Hearing, Ramdev-Balkrishna Tender Another Apology

Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna have filed a fresh unconditional apology to the Supreme Court in the misleading advertisements case after the court reprimanded both of them for their previous apology.

Ramdev and Balkrishna have tendered an unconditional and unqualified apology for being in breach of the undertaking it had furnished to the court in November last year, when Patanjali had assured the court that it would not make any casual statements disparaging the medicinal efficacy of a certain class of medicines.

In addition, they have assured the court that, moving forward, no offending advertisements will be aired.

After facing severe criticism from the court for failing to obey the court's directives, Patanjali filed an apology last month, stating that Patanjali's intention was only to exhort the citizens of this country to lead a healthier life by using its products, which have been formulated through the use of age-old literature and materials supplemented and backed by Ayurvedic research.

However, during last week's hearing, the court said that it was unhappy with its apology, highlighting that all of Patanjali's advertisements were directly confronting the court and that they were expected to make sure that their commitment would be upheld both in its exact wording and in its intent.

The top court is likely to hear the matter tomorrow, where both Ramdev and Balkrishna will have to be personally present in the courtroom.

In November last year, the top court issued strong caution to Ramdev and his multinational conglomerate for downplaying the effects of modern medicine.

As a result, Patanjali gave an undertaking to the court stating that it would not make any statement to the media disparaging the medicinal efficacy of any system of medicine.

However, right after giving the court this undertaking, Patanjali came out with a media statement the next day 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.

Patanjali’s move led the court to issue a contempt notice to Ramdev and Balkrishna for openly disregarding its directives as the company continued with its advertisements, despite giving assurances otherwise.