'We will rip you apart': Supreme Court's scathing remarks in Patanjali misleading ads case

‘We will rip you apart’: Supreme Court’s scathing remarks in Patanjali misleading ads case

The Supreme Court on April 10 refused to accept the apologies tenderd by yoga guru Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved MD Acharya Balkrishna in the misleading advertisements case.

Asserting that it does not want to be ‘generous’ in the case, the 2-judge SC bench said, “We do not accept it (unconditional apology). We decline to. We consider it a wilful, deliberate disobedience of the undertaking”.

The court warned both Ramdev and Balkrishan to brace themselves for potential repercussions, reported LiveLaw. On April 9, they had tendered ‘unconditional and unqualified apology’ before the Supreme Court over advertisements issued by Patanjali making tall claims about the medicinal efficacy of its products.

Here are the top quotes by the apex court in the Patanjali ads case:

• Tendering apology is not enough. You (Patanjali) should suffer the consequences for violating the court’s order. We do not want to be generous in this case.
• Apology is only on paper after they (Ramdev & Acharya Balkrishna) were caught on wrong foot in court. We do not accept it, we decline to. We consider it a wilful, deliberate disobedience of the undertaking.
• Till the matter hit the Court, the contemnors did not find it fit to send us the (fresh apology) affidavits. They sent it to the media first, till 7.30pm yesterday it was not uploaded for us. They believe in publicity clearly.
• The Uttarakhand licensing authority was merely pushing files and did nothing. The state authorities are hand in glove with the contemnors.
• We have strong objection to the use of the word ‘bonafide’ for officers. We are not going to take lightly. We will rip you apart.
• Patanjali MD and Ramdev tried to evade personal appearance before the court by making false claims of travel abroad.
• One man seeks mercy, what about those countless innocent people who took the medicines?

In the November 21, 2023 order, the top court had noted that counsel representing Patanjali Ayurved had assured it that “henceforth there shall not be any violation of any law(s), especially relating to advertising or branding of products manufactured and marketed by it and, further, that no casual statements claiming medicinal efficacy or against any system of medicine will be released to the media in any form”.

The apex court posted the case hearing on April 16.