Criminal case filed before Kerala Court against Baba Ramdev for Patanjali's misleading ads

A criminal case has been filed before a Kerala court against Patanjali Ayurved co-founders Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna in connection with the publication of allegedly misleading ads by the company. .The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court at Kozhikode will hear the matter on June 3 when the two accused are likely to be present personally. Recently, the Supreme Court of India too had ordered their personal appearance in contempt of court proceedings initiated against Patanjali Ayurved for its misleading advertisements..The case has been filed by the Drugs Inspector in April this year against Divya Pharmacy which markets and sells Patanjali products. It was filed under Sections 3(b) and 3(d) of the Drugs And Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 which prohibits advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and disorders.Section 3(b) prohibits ads from referring to any drug in terms which suggest that it can be used for the the maintenance or improvement of the capacity of human beings for sexual pleasureSection 3(d) prohibits ads from referring to any drug in terms which suggest that it can be used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, disorder or condition specified in the Schedule, or any other disease, disorder or condition which may be specified in the rules made under the Act..Patanjali Ayurved and its founders have recently been in the spotlight for publishing misleading ads about its products.The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had filed a petition before the Supreme Court against Patanjali Ayurved over its misleading ads which disparaged modern medicine.The Court had imposed a temporary ban on advertisements of the Patanjali's medicines, and issued contempt notices to its founders for making misleading claims.The top court had said that Patanjali has been taking the country for a ride by falsely claiming that its medicines cure certain diseases despite there being no empirical evidence for the same.After Ramdev and Balkrishna appeared before it and apologised, the Court had ordered it to publish apologies in newspapers.During the case, the Court had also pulled up the Central government for not invoking the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules of 1945 against Patanjali.