Supreme Court to Ramdev: Take down posts against allopathy put up during pandemic

The Delhi HC has given yoga guru Baba Ramdev, his aide Acharya Bal Krishan, and others three days to remove statements and posts that accuse allopathic medicine and doctors of causing deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. FIle pic

The Delhi High Court (HC) on Monday, in an interim order directed yoga guru Baba Ramdev, his aide Acharya Bal Krishan, and others to remove statements and posts that accuse allopathic medicine and doctors of causing deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic.

HC said it is constrained to observe that if the defendants are permitted to continue to promote and advertise the Tablet Coronil, then not only would the public at large be at risk of their health, but the ancient and venerated system of Ayurveda may itself come into disrepute.

"In fact, the very branding and labeling of the said Tablet as Coronil appears to suggest that the drug nullifies the coronavirus, that is to say, it cures the disease, which may even amount to mislabeling and/or misbranding of the drug, which is impermissible under the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. However, this court leaves it to the competent authorities to examine this aspect without making any further observations," it said.

The bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani gave the defendants three days to take down several of their claims on social media platforms and promoting Patanjali's Coronil as the only cure for the virus. If they fail to do so, the social media intermediaries will take down the content, the court said.

HC passed the order on an interim petition moved in a lawsuit filed by various doctors' associations challenging Baba Ramdev's claim that Coronil is a cure for Covid-19 rather than a mere immunity booster despite the product being licenced only as an ‘immuno-booster'. The associations have argued that Baba Ramdev's statements about Coronil lack scientific evidence. This discrepancy between the claims made and the product's approved use is central to the legal challenge.

The senior counsel representing the plaintiffs earlier had requested the court to issue an injunction to prevent the defendants from making further similar claims about Coronil and argued that such statements are misleading and not supported by the product's official licence.

Ramdev's senior lawyer stated that he is committed to adhering to an undertaking previously given in the Supreme Court regarding advertisements for Patanjali products. The lawyer also expressed willingness to provide a similar undertaking in the Delhi HC to address concerns about misleading claims.

However, the plaintiffs' lawyer argued that the previous undertaking given in the Supreme Court was related to avoiding "casual statements" not compliant with legal standards and requested the court issue an interim order.

Justice Bhambhani noted that the current case involved "specific instances" of alleged misleading claims and reserved his decision.

In 2021, multiple doctors' associations - including those from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rishikesh, Patna, and Bhubaneswar; the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research in Chandigarh; the Union of Resident Doctors of Punjab; Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College in Meerut; and the Telangana Junior Doctors' Association in Hyderabad - filed a lawsuit against Ramdev and others in Delhi HC.

The associations' lawsuit asserts that Ramdev, being a highly influential figure, was undermining public trust in allopathic treatments and Covid-19 vaccines.

They claimed that his actions constituted a misinformation campaign designed to promote his products, including Coronil, as alternative Covid-19 treatments.

(With ANI inputs)