The Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 14, reserved its order on the contempt notice issued to yoga guru Ramdev, his aide Balkrishna and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd in the misleading advertisements case. It also expressed dissatisfaction with the apology submitted by the president of the Indian Medical Association, Dr RV Asokan, for his remarks in a media interview over certain observations made by the court.
A bench of justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also dispensed with the personal appearance of Ramdev and Balkrishna. Ramdev and Balkrishna were present before the apex court pursuant to its earlier direction. The bench also granted Patanjali three weeks to file affidavits indicating the steps taken to recall misleading ads for Patanjali products, for which licences have been suspended.
“Public is cognisant, if they have choices they make well informed choices… Baba Ramdev has a lot of influence, use it in the right was,” the bench said after reserving orders in the contempt case.
“What has been done for yoga is good, but Patanjali products is another matter,” Justice Kohil replied when solicitor general Tushar Mehta said Ramdev has done a lot of good for yoga.
Supreme Court on IMA chief
The Supreme Court was hearing a case filed by the IMA against an alleged smear campaign carried out by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. and its founders against the Covid-19 vaccination drive and modern medicine.
Pulling up IMA president Dr RV Asokan for giving an interview to the press on the Supreme Court’s orders in the case, the top court said that it was not convinced with the affidavit he filed tendering unconditional apology.
“You do exactly the same thing Patanjali did. You are not a layman, don’t you know the consequences of such things? You can’t sit on your couch lamenting the court’s order,” the bench told Asokan, who was present in the court.
“We are the first ones to uphold the freedom of free speech. But there are times when there should be self-restraint. As IMA President, you should have had self-restraint. That’s the point. We didn’t see that in your interviews,” said the bench.
It added, “Dr. Asokan, you are also a citizen of this country. The amount of criticism judges face, why don’t they react? Because personally, we don’t have much of an ego, we are magnanimous. We are entitled to take action, but very rarely we do. We do that seldom… We use our discretion with some sense of responsibility. But that does not mean you go to town with these kinds of comments.”
In an interview, Asokan said it was unfortunate that the Supreme Court criticised the practice of IMA and private doctors.
Patanjali had filed an application against the IMA president asking the bench to take judicial notice of “wanton and unwarranted comments” made by Asokan.
While hearing the matter on May 7, the top court had termed as “very, very unacceptable” the statements made by Asokan.
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Source: HT/NDTV
