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Supreme Court warns contempt proceedings for inaction over misleading medical ads

ByAbraham Thomas
Jan 15, 2025 08:14 PM IST

The Supreme Court was also told that Ramdev was not cooperating in proceedings before the trial court and hadn’t appeared on last seven dates

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against states and union territories that fail to act against misleading medical advertisements.

A view of the Supreme Court building. (ANI)
A view of the Supreme Court building. (ANI)

The top court’s warning came after senior lawyer Shadan Farasat, who was asked to monitor implementation of action against advertisements that violate Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act (DMR Act), Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DC Act), and Consumer Protection Act (CPA), submitted his report to the court.

“We make it clear that wherever we find non-compliance by states or UTs, we will take action under the Contempt of Courts Act against the concerned states/UTs,” a bench of justices Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said.

Wednesday’s report by Farasat, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, indicated that several states were slow in pursuing cases against individuals and companies under the three laws.

It made a reference to a case against entrepreneur Ramdev, underlining that he was not cooperating with the criminal trial pending against him before the chief judicial magistrate in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district.

“It has come to the attention of the amicus that respondent No. 7 (Ramdev) is not cooperating with the ongoing legal proceedings against him under the Drugs and Magical Remedies Act, 1954… Given the seriousness of the issue, the amicus has furnished the details of non-appearance of the respondent No. 7 on last seven dates in the pending case,” Farasat’s report said.

It said the case was adjourned on five of these seven dates due to the absence of the accused. On two occasions, even the presiding judge was on leave.

On August 14 last year, the Supreme Court closed contempt proceedings against Ramdev and Patanjali’s managing director Balkrishna after accepting their unconditional apology and a renewed undertaking to avoid misleading advertisements and claims about the products made by Divya Pharmacy.

These proceedings originated from a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) against Ramdev and Balkrishna, founders of Patanjali Ayurved, for allegedly making misleading claims about the effectiveness and benefits of their products.

The top court is expected to take up the first batch of monitoring of action taken by Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on February 10.

In May last year, the court directed the licensing authorities in states to report on the cases lodged with regard to misleading advertisements since 2018. In subsequent orders, the court pulled up states for failing to even impose penalties to ensure there is some deterrence in complying with the law.

On Wednesday, Farasat said most states hadn’t invoked the laws against violators and hardly any penalties were imposed even against repeat offenders.

On going through the reasons for inaction recorded in the individual state affidavits, he said, “A conspectus reading of the affidavits filed by states/UTs points to the stated cause of a negligible number of complaints to be the absence of Ayurvedic pharmaceutical units within their territorial jurisdiction.”

Most states are under a misunderstanding that if the pharmaceutical unit is not established or registered in the state, authorities are not entitled to take action under DMR Act. This was incorrect, Farasat added.

He added, “Under section 9A of DMR Act, the offences are cognizable and the only mechanism for enforcement of the DMR Act is registration and prosecution of these offences.” Yet, he pointed out that the police is not registering complaints of this nature. He sought a clarification from the court that if “cognizable offences are made out, the police officials should register FIR based on private complaints”.

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