SC gives Patanjali one week to apologise for misleading ads

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday granted one-week time to yoga guru Ramdev, his aide Balkrishna and Patanjali Ayurved to issue a public apology in the misleading advertisements case, but said it was not letting them "off the hook" now.

Both Ramdev and Balkrishna were present during the hearing and personally tendered an unqualified apology to the apex court.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah took note of their apologies, but made it clear that at this stage it has not decided to "let them off the hook".

"You are doing good work but you can't degrade allopathy," the bench told Balkrishna while interacting with him.

Ramdev, who also interacted with the bench, said he had no intention to show disrespect to the court in any manner.

However, the bench told Balkrishna that they (Patanjali) are not so innocent that they didn't know what the top court had said in its earlier orders in the case.

“What we did at that point of time, it should not have been done,” Ramdev said, addressing the company's decision to continue publishing misleading advertisements.

“We released the advertisements on an impulse.”

The court asked Ramdev and Balkrishna, both of whom were present in the court, to come forward for an interaction with the bench.

'Ramdev is not so innocent'...What the top court said...

• This is irresponsible behaviour. The previous history of yours is damaging. We will think over it, whether to accept your apology or not, Justice Kohli said.
• We are not saying we will forgive you. We cannot be blind to your earlier history; we will think about your apology. 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, the bench said.
• Justice Kohli said they cannot claim a cure for specific diseases in its advertisements and it is illegal to advertise medicines as specific cures for diseases.
• Advertising medicines for the treatment of specific diseases is not permitted, the bench told Ramdev.
• Your apology is not coming from your heart, Justice Amanullah said.