Patanjali's defiance backfires: Supreme Court holds leadership accountable

This is not the first time that Patanjali's products and claims have come under scrutiny but this is for the first time that its leadership is being held accountable by the highest court of India.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

It took fewer than ten hearings at the Supreme Court, four of which were spent on sorting the technical issues, for the mighty Patanjali Ayurved, an influential Indian multinational conglomerate holding company, to come down on its knees, with its owner Ramdev and Balkrishna personally appearing in front of the Supreme Court earlier last week and tendering an unconditional apology for disregarding the apex court’s directives that it had laid down last year prohibiting Patanjali from propagating misleading advertisements regarding its products. The company’s promoters and owners are regarded highly by politicians cutting across party lines.

The rebuke from the Supreme Court on 2 April to the duo and the company stems from the contempt notice that the court had issued on 27 February against them for publishing advertisements of products in violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and its Rules, despite an undertaking given to contrary to the court in November.

During the February hearing, the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah had said Patanjali had violated the assurance that they had given to the Supreme Court on 21 November 2023 of refraining from advertising or branding their products as “permanent relief” for diseases like obesity, blood pressure, asthma, etc, in violation of the 1954 Act.
“What do you mean by ‘permanent relief’? There are only two types of permanent relief. One, the person dies. Two, the person is cured. There is no third ‘permanent relief’,” Justice Amanullah had asked while addressing the lawyers for Patanjali which included celebrated and highly paid lawyer Mukul Rohatgi.