SC comes down heavily on Ramdev, Balkrishna; declines to accept apology affidavits

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it declines to accept the affidavits filed by yoga guru Ramdev and managing director of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd Acharya Balkrishna tendering an unconditional apology in the misleading advertisements case.

"We don't want to be so generous in this case," a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said during the hearing.

The apex court also came down heavily on the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority for not taking action against Patanjali Ayurved.

The hearing in the matter is underway.

Ramdev and Balkrishna have tendered an "unconditional and unqualified apology" before the apex court over advertisements issued by the firm making tall claims about the medicinal efficacy of its products.

In two separate affidavits filed in the court, Ramdev and Balkrishna have tendered an unqualified apology for the "breach of the statement" recorded in the November 21 last year order of the apex court.

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 top court had said Patanjali Ayurved Ltd is "bound down to such assurance".

The non-observance of the specific assurance and the subsequent media statements irked the apex court, which later issued notice to them to show cause as to why contempt proceedings be not initiated against them.