By – Prakarsh Kastwar
The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on the Patanjali deceptive ads case for April 23.
The Supreme Court directed Yoga guru Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd MD Balkrishna Acharya to take steps to redeem themselves from the alleged contempt after their attorneys volunteered to give a public apology in the context of deceptive ads.
The court has set the next hearing date for April 23.
“I am willing to give a public apology,” senior attorney Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Ramdev and Balkrishna, told a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah.
Ramdev and Balkrishna, who were both present in court, were invited by the Supreme Court to come forward and speak with the bench.
“They should feel they have a connection with the court,” the bench stated.
The hearing in this case is presently underway, and the bench is conversing with Ramdev.
Ramdev and Balkrishna have filed a “unconditional and unqualified apology” to the Supreme Court over advertising issued by the corporation making false claims regarding the therapeutic value of its goods.
Ramdev and Balkrishna have filed two distinct affidavits in court, each containing an unconditional regret for the “breach of the statement” recorded in the Supreme Court’s November 21 decision last year.
In the order dated November 21, 2023, the Supreme Court mentioned that the legal representative of Patanjali Ayurved had given it the assurance that “from now on, there won’t be any infractions of any laws, particularly concerning the branding or advertising of its manufactured and marketed products and, additionally, that no trite remarks asserting therapeutic effectiveness or disparaging any medical system will be disclosed to the media in any manner.”
According to the Supreme Court, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd is “bound down to such assurance”.
The failure to comply with the precise assurance, as well as the subsequent public pronouncements, irritated the Supreme Court, which later sent a notice to them to explain why contempt proceedings were not filed against them.