The matter will be taken up for further hearing after two weeks.
IMA President Dr RV Asokan: Further to the Supreme Court ruling in the Haridwar-based Patanjali Ayurved case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it will look into Indian Medical Association (IMA) president Dr RV Asokan’s statement where he termed the verbal observations made by the SC during Patanjali’s misleading advertisements case against allopathy practitioners as “unfortunate and very vague and general statement which has demoralized the doctors”.
Mukul Rohatgi, senior advocate and former Attorney General for India, representing Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, apprised a bench presided over by Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah, that he came across a “very disturbing interview” of Asokan given on Monday to a media outlet.
Mukul Rohatgi also represents Swami Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna.
“He (IMA president Dr RV Asokan) says why the court has turned fingers at us and the court is making unfortunate statements. This is direct interference with the court’s proceedings,” said Rohatgi.
“Bring it on record. We will deal with it,” said the Bench.
Mukul Rohatgi said that he would move an application seeking contempt against IMA president Dr RV Asokan and sought permission to allow him to bring on record the entire page of newspapers containing the public apology published by Patanjali.
The matter will be taken up for further hearing after two weeks.
Patanjali Ayurved has been in the news since the Supreme Court, in November 2023, asked the company to “stop misleading ads or face legal action” and issued a stern warning to Patanjali Ayurved for continuing to publish misleading claims and advertisements against modern systems of medicine.
The SC was hearing a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) against what it (IMA) called “misleading advertisements.”
The top court, on August 23, 2022, had issued notices to the Union Health Ministry and Ministry of Ayush and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, on the plea of the IMA alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev against the vaccination drive and modern medicines.
In February this year, the Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to Ramdev-owned Patanjali Ayurved and its managing director Acharya Balakrishna for allegedly issuing misleading advertisements and flouting an earlier undertaking given by them to the court.
Patanjali suffered another setback after it received a show cause notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (Chandigarh) on April 26 in connection with Rs 27.5 crore tax claim.
(With IANS inputs)
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