Patanjali's Ramdev, Balkrishna not out of the woods yet, says Supreme Court

Supreme Court asks them to issue a public statement in a week

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will deliberate whether it will accept the apology of Patanjali Ayurved’s founder Baba Ramdev and its managing director Acharya Balkrishna for running misleading advertisements disparaging allopathy.

The court has given them a week’s time to issue a public statement. 

“We are not saying we will forgive you. We cannot be blind to your earlier history, we will think about your apology,” the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said.

“You are not so innocent that you were completely unaware of what was going on in court. At this moment, we are not saying they are off the hook,” Justice Kohli said.

The court said it will take up the matter again on April 23, after recording an undertaking by Patanjali’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi that they (Ramdev and Balkrishna) will take some steps to redeem themselves. 

“You cannot degrade allopathy. You do your own work. You should not point fingers at others…Law is equal for everyone,” said Justice Amanullah. 

“You were in the know that your lawyers gave an undertaking in court (to not make statements against other forms of medicine). Tomorrow you will say you were not aware of it. You are a multi-crore company and you have a legal team. You are not so innocent,” Justice Kohli said. 

When Balkrishna tried to explain his reasoning for the statement to press, Justice Amanullah said, “Don’t try to justify your statements. This shows you didn't have a change of heart. You are still trying to justify (your earlier statements).”

“The apology should reflect in your actions and not just your words,” Justice Kohli said. 

The court also pointed out that advertising medicines for the treatment of specific diseases is not permitted.

“Neither a doctor nor a pharmacy can do that. It is irresponsible to do that. Every citizen is bound by the law,” the court said.

“Most respected judge, whatever we have done, we have apologised for it,” Ramdev replied, “I will be conscious about it in future. This all happened in the excitement of work. It won’t happen in future,” he added. 

“This all happened due to ignorance. We apologise for it,” Balkrishna told the court. 

“Allopathy has been called pseudoscience and there has always been a dispute between these two branches of medicine. On Wikipedia also,” Ramdev said.

“But what do you have to do with it? You do your work,” Justice Amanullah replied. 

On November 21, 2023, Ramdev and Balkrishna had assured the court that they would not make any “casual statements claiming medicinal efficacy or against any system of medicine”.

But, just a day later, on November 22, Ramdev held a press conference saying remedies for blood pressure were “lies spread by allopathy’’. And on December 4, the unlisted firm in which Balkrishna holds about 94 per cent stake, issued a similar advertisement. It irked the apex court.

The court is hearing a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) against Patanjali’s advertisements attacking allopathy and making claims about curing certain diseases.