Patanjali ads case: 'Will not repeat such mistake again', after Supreme Court's rebuke, Ramdev, Balkrishna again apologized publicly
Patanjali ads case: Yoga guru Ramdev and Balkrishna, co-founders of Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd, issued a new public apology in newspapers on Wednesday, April 24. The Supreme Court had yesterday raised questions on the size of the apology letter published in the newspapers. The advertisement published this morning covers one-fourth of a newspaper page and is titled 'Unconditional Public Apology'.
It reads, 'We apologize unconditionally for organizing the meeting/press conference on 22.11.2023. We sincerely apologize for the mistake we made in publishing our advertisements and it is our full commitment that such errors will not be repeated. We promise to follow the instructions.
And with due care and utmost sincerity to the instructions of the Hon'ble Court. We undertake to maintain the majesty of the Court and abide by the applicable laws and instructions of the Honorable Court/concerned authorities Balkrishna, Swami Ramdev, Haridwar, Uttarakhand.’
‘The apology letter should be of the size of an advertisement’
Baba Ramdev and his associate Balkrishna of Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd told the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah that they have tendered an unconditional public apology to 67 newspapers over the misleading advertisements. Also said that they will release more advertisements apologizing unconditionally for their mistakes.
On this, Justice Hima Kohli said, was this apology of the same size as your advertisements? Take cuttings of these advertisements and send them to us. There is no need to enlarge them. We want to see its size only. This is our instruction. Justice Kohli said that when you publish an advertisement, will we look at it under a microscope.
We didn't come here to shoot guns for anyone
The Supreme Court bench said that we should make it clear that we have not come here to shoot guns for any particular party or any particular agency or any particular authority. This is a public interest litigation and is in the interest of the people. People should know how they can be misled.
Also, how the authorities are working to stop it. The Supreme Court had also reprimanded the Indian Medical Association (IMA) during the hearing. The court said that IMA should also look at itself. Apart from Patanjali Ayurveda, the court also mentioned other FMCG companies and said that they also make false claims about their products.