Kerala High Court Today (April 3) stayed criminal proceedings against Baba Ramdev and Patanjali for a controversial medicine ad. The court found issues with timing and legal procedure in the case.
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KOCHI: The Kerala High Court temporarily stayed the criminal case going on against the promoters of Patanjali Ayurved, Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna. This case was related to an advertisement for a Patanjali medicine that was claimed to be against the law.
Justice VG Arun, who is a single-judge of the Kerala High Court, gave the order on Thursday. He has paused the legal proceedings for now, which were happening in the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court II in Palakkad district. The stay (temporary stop) will remain for three months.
This case started because of a complaint made by the Drug Inspector of Palakkad. He said that Patanjali had released an advertisement for one of their products called Mukta Vati Vati Extra Power, which was published in Mathrubhumi newspaper on September 30, 2023.
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According to the Drug Inspector, this advertisement was a “prohibited advertisement” as per the Drugs and Magical Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954. The complaint also said that the advertisement was made to encourage people to buy the medicine without any doctor’s advice, which could lead to self-treatment and serious health problems.
After the complaint, an inspection was done at the Patanjali premises, and it was found that the medicine was kept for sale. The authorities said that the product was a drug under Section 2(b) of the Act. On the label of the product, it was written: “Indications- Useful in Blood Pressure (Cardiac Disorder)”. This was taken as an advertisement under Section 2(a) of the Act.
To stop the criminal case, Patanjali and its promoters Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna went to the Kerala High Court and filed a request to cancel the case.
One of their main arguments was about the time limit for filing such cases. They said that the advertisement was printed on September 30, 2023, and as per Section 468 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), if the punishment for an offence is up to six months, then the complaint must be filed within one year.
But in this case, the Magistrate started the case on October 28, 2024, which is more than a year after the advertisement came out. So, the complaint was too late according to the law, they argued.
They also said that the advertisement does not violate Section 3(d) of the Drugs and Magical Remedies Act. The Act was made to stop people from promoting magical remedies.
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As they explained in their petition,
“The word magic remedy is defined as drug having miraculous powers. The object of section 3(d) to suggest/calculate to lead the use of the drug such a magical remedy is not advertised. The advertisement itself carries a statement that, the medicine can be so used only after the prescription by a registered medical practitioner, which means that the advertisement itself does not lead to the use of the drug straight away. So, the offence under the section 3(d) is not made out.”
They also mentioned a point from the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, specifically from Section 223, which says that no case should be started by a Magistrate without first giving the accused a chance to speak or reply.
They claimed that no such chance was given to Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna, which goes against the law.
“Such opportunity is mandatory and admittedly, no such opportunity was granted to Ramdev and Balkrishna,”
-their legal team argued.
Representing Patanjali and its promoters in the court were Senior Advocate Ajith Kumar, along with lawyers Cyriac Rom, Shiv Shankar, Ananthu Bahuleyan from Quint Law Partners, and advocates Yagyawalkya Singh from D&Y Law Chambers, and Sanjay Singh.
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