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Informist, Monday, Jul 29, 2024

 

--HC to Patanjali Ramdev:Remove statements against allopathy on COVID

--CONTEXT: HC hearing defamation suit vs Patanjali by doctors' body

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court today directed Patanjali Ayurved Ltd's Co-founder Baba Ramdev to take down his statements claiming that allopathy was responsible for the death of millions of people during COVID-19 and that Patanjali's Coronil was a cure for the virus.

 

The high court passed the interim order in a defamation suit filed by various associations of doctors against Patanjali Ayurved, Ramdev and the company’s Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna.

 

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani asked Ramdev to take down the content from social media within three days. If Ramdev fails to take down the statements within three days, the court said social media intermediaries will take them down. 

 

The high court said that Patanjali, Ramdev and Balkrishna had claimed that Coronil tablet was a cure for COVID-19. "Such statements and representations are clearly contrary to, and in flagrant violation of, the statutory approvals, certifications and licences issued by the Ministry of AYUSH," the court said.

 

The court said the statutory approvals, certifications and licences at the most permitted Coronil to be used as a supplement for COVID-19, implying thereby that it is at best an immunity booster. "This is a far cry from saying that the said tablet is a treatment, medicine or cure for COVID-19," the court said.

 

Prima-facie putting out such material amounts to public nuisance and a wrongful act that would affect the public-at-large, the court said.

 

The court said that a specific application made by Patanjali seeking to update the permissible use of Coronil was not approved by the ministry in 2021. "One also cannot lose sight of the fact that the offending statements were made at a time when the world was facing what was unarguably the most serious health crisis that humanity had seen in the last century," the court said.

 

The petitioners alleged that Ramdev spread misinformation, which prompted people to not get hospitalised, by saying that allopathy was responsible for COVID-19 deaths. The petitioners said there was a misinformation campaign and a marketing strategy by Ramdev and Patanjali to further the sales of products, including Coronil, which was claimed to be an alternative treatment for COVID-19. 

 

In February, the Supreme Court had come down sharply on Patanjali for its misleading advertisements on the medicinal efficacy of its products and barred it from advertising or branding its products that claimed to treat ailments specified in the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. The court also cautioned Patanjali Ayurved, the parent company of Patanjali Foods, from making statements against any system of medicine.

 

At 1528 IST, the shares of Patanjali Foods Ltd were up 2.1% at 1,702.50 rupees on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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