The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Indian Medical Association president R V Asokan's unconditional apology published in a newspaper over his "damaging" statements in an interview to PTI was illegible and the font miniscule.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Sandeep Mehta directed senior advocate P S Patwalia, appearing for Asokan, to file file physical copies of 20 editions of The Hindu newspaper in which his apology has been published within one week.

"We will not budge until we see advertisements in physical form, show us the actual size...The excerpt of the apology filed before us is illegible in as much as the font is miniscule. Counsel for IMA president is directed to file physical copies of 20 publications of The Hindu where the publication of apology has been done within one week," the bench said.

On July 9, Asokan had told the apex court that his unconditional apology to the apex court over his "damaging" statements in an interview to PTI, where he had answered queries about Patanjali Ayurved Ltd's misleading advertisements case, has been published in various publications.

During the hearing on May 14, the bench had posed some tough question to Asokan over his "damaging" statements against the court in an interview to PTI and said, "You cannot sit on a couch giving an interview to the press and lampooning the court." The court had then made it clear that it will not accept his affidavit tendering apology at that stage.

Expressing displeasure over Asokan's comments a day before the top court was slated to the hear the matter, it had sought his response on an application filed by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, which had urged the court to take judicial notice of the statements made by him.

In an interaction with PTI editors on April 29 for its programme '@4 Parliament Street,' the IMA president had said it was "unfortunate" that the Supreme Court criticised the association and also some of the practices of private doctors.

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