Court refuses to accept apology
Yoga guru Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved Limited MD Acharya Balkrishna once again apologized to the Supreme Court over the advertisements issued by the company making tall claims about its products. The top court strongly reprimanded this. Said we are not blind. We refuse to accept the apology. At the same time, it also said that it is not satisfied with the Centre’s response.
A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice A Amanullah said, ‘The apology is only on paper. We refuse to accept this, we consider it a deliberate violation of the order.
At the beginning of the hearing, the bench said, ‘Until the matter came to the court, the contemnors did not think it appropriate to send us the affidavits. They sent it to the media first, it was not uploaded for us till 7.30 pm yesterday. They (Ramdev and Balakrishna) clearly believe in propaganda.
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In the Patanjali misleading advertisement case, senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi read out the affidavit of yoga guru Baba Ramdev before the Supreme Court bench, in which he had said that he apologizes unconditionally on the advertisement issue.
On this the Supreme Court said, ‘Apology is only for papers. We consider this a deliberate disobedience of the order. This message should go to the society that the court order should not be violated.
Uttarakhand government also reprimanded
The Supreme Court also made strict comments on the Uttarakhand government in the case of Patanjali Ayurveda. The court said that the Uttarakhand government did not take any action in this matter.
The bench also said that the Uttarakhand government cannot let it go like this. All complaints were sent to the government. The licensing inspector remained silent, no report came from the officer. The officials concerned should be suspended now.
The Supreme Court said, ‘They say that the purpose of the advertisement was to keep people engaged with Ayurvedic medicines as if they were the first people in the world to come up with Ayurvedic medicines.’
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The bench said that the Supreme Court has become a joke for such people. At the same time, the court questioned the Uttarakhand government about those countless innocent people who took the medicine thinking that their disease would be cured? The court said that this is related to all those FMCG companies who lure consumers and then they have to face health related problems.
