2024-07-12 13:49:17
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev’s company Patanjali Ayurveda to file an affidavit. In this, the company will have to tell whether the advertisements of 14 products whose manufacturing licenses were suspended by the Uttarakhand government have been withdrawn or not. The Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority issued an order on April 15 suspending the manufacturing licenses of 14 products of Patanjali Ayurveda and Divya Pharmacy. In a recent development, the State Licensing Authority has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that the suspension order has been revoked after the report of a high-level committee investigating Patanjali Ayurveda’s complaints in the wake of the controversy. It said on May 17 that the implementation of the order of April 15 was stayed and later the suspension order was revoked. However, during the hearing, a bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Sandeep Mehta took cognizance of Patanjali’s May 16 affidavit, in which the company had said that the sale of the said 14 products has been stopped in view of the suspension order of April 15. The affidavit said the company has also taken steps to remove the relevant advertisement from its official social media accounts/handles.
Baba Ramdev told which company in the FMCG sector is Patanjali Foods’ direct competitor
By when will the affidavit have to be given
The bench asked the company to file an affidavit within two weeks. The apex court was hearing a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which accused Patanjali of running a propaganda campaign against the COVID vaccination campaign and modern medical systems. The bench asked senior advocate PS Patwalia, appearing for the IMA, whether he had shown the necessary promptness and found out whether these advertisements were removed after Patanjali filed an affidavit in May.
During the hearing, the counsel for one of the applicants said that the Centre should look into the matter related to misleading advertisements as soon as possible. He said, “It is having a huge impact on the online industry.” Justice Kohli said, “There is no intention to trouble anyone. The intention is only to focus on particular areas and particular aspects.” The bench asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) K M Nataraj, who was appearing for the Centre, “Can we request you to call a meeting so that there can be a discussion between all the stakeholders and the senior-most officials of your department?”
On whose complaint was action taken against Baba Ramdev’s company Patanjali? We found out
misleading advertising
He said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has held high-level meetings with various stakeholders to resolve the issues and difficulties expressed by them. The bench fixed July 30 for the next hearing of the case. The apex court had reserved its order on May 14 on the contempt notice issued to yoga guru Ramdev, his associate Balkrishna and Patanjali Ayurveda Limited in the misleading advertisement case. Patanjali Ayurveda Limited had assured the apex court on November 21 last year that it would not violate any law, especially the law related to advertising or branding of the products manufactured and marketed by it.