Supreme Court rejects Ramdev, Balakrishna’s new apology over misleading ads
Hindustan TimesNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to accept an unconditional apology offered by yoga guru and entrepreneur Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved managing director Acharya Balkrishna facing contempt action for violating an undertaking given to the court, saying the two were apologising because they had been “caught on the wrong foot” and “their back was against the wall”. “It is not about the contemnors alone but a larger message should go out to the public at large that an undertaking given to the court, which is to be valued and accepted, and you are violating the law with blatant impunity,” the bench told senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Balbir Singh who appeared for the two contemnors. The bench also pulled up the Uttarakhand state licensing authority for sitting on complaints against Patanjali and ordered all district ayurvedic and unani officials from 2018 to file affidavits explaining inaction on their part. The bench cited an affidavit filed by Mithilesh Kumar, joint director of the licensing authority, noting that it was “appalled” to know that the file against Patanjali kept on getting “pushed” from one authority to another since 2019 with an attempt to delay the matter without registering criminal case, as required under the 1954 Act.