'Is apology the same size as your ads?’

New Delhi, NT Bureau: The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, April 23, once again heavily came down upon Patanjali Ayurved questioning if their public apology in newspapers was as big as their misleading advertisements.

“When you issue an apology, it does not mean that we have to see it by a microscope,” the court said and directed the company to submit the original newspaper clippings of the apology advertisements. e can't let the public be taken for a ride," the Supreme Court said on Tuesday while asking the Centre and state licensing authorities to "activate" themselves to deal with misleading advertisements.

While questioning the Centre over an August 2023 letter by the Ministry of Ayush asking the licensing authorities not to initiate or take any action under rule 170 of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, the apex court also pulled up the Indian Medical Association (IMA) about the alleged unethical acts of its members in prescribing highly expensive medicines for valuable consideration.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, while hearing the case related to misleading advertisements by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, said there are several other Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) companies going that way and the Centre has to respond as to what it has done about this.

"We can't let the public be taken for a ride," the bench observed, adding, "If this (misleading advertisements) is happening, the Union of India needs to activate itself and so do the state licensing authorities".

"You can't just shrug your shoulders and say I have conveyed the complaint to the state authority and it is for them to do what they are doing," the bench said.

The bench told the IMA's counsel that while the association is pointing fingers at Patanjali, "the other four fingers are also pointing at you (IMA)".