New Delhi: The Supreme Court strongly criticised the government for not taking action in the case of "misleading and false" advertisements by Patanjali Ayurved, co-owned by yoga guru Ramdev.
The court expressed concern that the entire country is being misled through such advertisements, emphasising the need for immediate government action.
The bench issued a directive to Patanjali to cease all electronic and print advertisements of its medicines providing "misleading" information with immediate effect.
In November of the previous year, the Supreme Court had cautioned Patanjali against making "false" and "misleading" claims in its medicine advertisements.
The court highlighted the issue of advertisements accusing doctors and the allopathic system, expressing respect for Ramdev as a yoga populariser but cautioning against criticism of other medical systems. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had raised concerns about advertisements projecting allopathy and doctors negatively, claiming that they were misleading the public.
The commercials allegedly suggested that medical practitioners were dying despite using modern medicines, prompting the Supreme Court to direct the government to find a solution to the problem of misleading medical advertisements.