Patanjali misleading ads: SC reserves order against Baba Ramdev, asks IMA for apology

The Supreme court has reserved its order on a contempt plea against Baba Ramdev, Acharya Balkrishna, and others in the Patanjali misleading advertisements case.

Further, the SC has granted Patanjali time to file affidavits indicating the steps taken to recall ads of the products of which licenses have been suspended, and for recalling medicines. The case was heard today by the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah. “Public is cognisant, if they have choices they make well informed choices…Baba Ramdev has a lot of influence, use it in the right way,” the SC said.

Meanwhile, the apex court has also pulled up Indian Medical Association president Dr R V Asokan for his disparaging remarks on court proceedings and rejected his affidavit seeking apology. The SC hinted that he has to publish a public apology as done by Baba Ramdev in the Patanjali misleading ad case.

“You do exactly the same thing Patanjali did. You are not a layman, don’t you know the consequences of such things? You can’t sit on your couch lamenting the order of the court,” the bench told Asokan.

It further told Asokan, “Dr. Asokan, you are also a citizen of this country. The amount of criticism judges face, why don’t they react? Because personally we don’t have much of an ego, we are magnanimous. We are entitled to take action, but very rarely we do. We do that seldom… We use our discretion with some sense of responsibility. But that does not mean you go to town with this kind of comments.”