A Kerala court has issued a bailable arrest warrant for Baba Ramdev and his associate Acharya Balakrishna following a complaint filed by Kerala drug regulators against Patanjali Ayurved for alleged misleading advertisements on its healthcare products.
The warrant issued by the Palakkad District Court on Thursday is the first warrant-based summons to Ramdev since a Kerala doctor complained to the Centre about the alleged misleading advertisements nearly three years ago, leading to 10 cases in Kerala and one in Uttarakhand.
The case status on January 16, 2025, as documented by the Palakkad court notes: “Complainant absent. All accused served. Bailable warrant to all accused.”
Kerala’s drugs control department, acting on multiple complaints filed by Kannur-based ophthalmologist K.V. Babu, had in November 2023 asked its offices across the state to initiate legal proceedings against Patanjali for allegedly violating the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.
The advertisements had claimed that certain Patanjali Ayurved products could cure high blood pressure and diabetes, among other health disorders, but such claims are prohibited by the DMR Act, which bans advertisements promoting cures for several specific illnesses.
Babu had first complained to central and state authorities about what he had alleged were Patanjali’s misleading advertisements in April 2022. After several follow-up complaints, including one in January 2024 sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, Uttarakhand authorities filed a case and the Haridwar District and Sessions Court began summoning Ramdev and his associates for hearings.
Patanjali Ayurved, founded in 2006 by yoga evangelist Ramdev and Balakrishna, is based in Haridwar. A query sent by this newspaper to Patanjali Ayurved seeking its perspective on the warrant issued by the Palakkad court has evoked no response.
“The Haridwar court has since April 2024 summoned Ramdev for hearings six times —and the court records suggest that there has been no outcome from those hearings,” Babu told The Telegraph.
In Kerala, under the November 2023 directions of the state drug regulatory authority, several drug inspectors have also filed petitions against Patanjali in various courts, leading to two cases in Kochi, four cases in Kozhikode, three in Palakkad and one in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Palakkad district court’s bailable warrant for Ramdev and Balakrishna on January 16 comes a day after the Supreme Court warned states and Union Territories of contempt action if they failed to act against misleading advertisements.
A bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan on January 15 had noted observations made by senior advocate Shadan Farasat, who is assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in the matter, that several states have been non-compliant.
“We make it clear that if we find non-compliance by any of the states or Union Territories, we may have to initiate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act 1971 against the states concerned,” the bench said, according to a PTI report.
During the Supreme Court hearing on January 15, the amicus curiae noted that affidavits filed by various states and Union Territories suggest that virtually no prosecution was taking place under the 1954 DMR Act. The bench referred to affidavits filed by some states and questioned why they hadn’t acted on the basis of the complaints received, the PTI report said.
While hearing the matter in July last year, the Supreme Court had said the Union ministry for Ayurveda Yoga Unani Siddha Homeopathy should set up a dashboard to make available to consumers details about complaints filed on misleading advertisements and progress made on them.
In April 2024, the apex court had asked the Centre and state licensing authorities to “activate” themselves to deal with misleading advertisements.