The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to accept a clarification issued by yoga guru Ramdev on a plea filed by the the Delhi Medical Association seeking to restrain him from giving false information about Coronil, a product manufactured by his firm Patanjali Ayurved, Live Law reported.
Ramdev had launched Coronil in June 2020 amid the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that the product could cure the disease in seven days. His company, however, did not provide any scientific evidence to back the claim.
At the last hearing in the court, Ramdev and Patanjali had said they would issue a clarification on the matter in consultation with counsel of the Delhi Medical Association, Bar and Bench reported.
However, on Thursday, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani was told that the two sides could not reach a consensus on the clarification. Instead, Ramdev’s lawyer presented a proposed clarification, which the judge refused to accept.
Bhambani observed that the clarification was like a “pat on your own back” and hardly withdrew any of the claims the yoga guru had made.
“See the point is, it has to be shorn of unnecessary verbiage and nuances,” the judge remarked, according to Bar and Bench. “You gave the public two impressions: One is that allopathic doctors don’t have a cure and two that Coronil is the cure and treatment...Words have to express the thought. If there is bona fide thought, then it has been concealed in this clarification.”
The judge was referring to a statement made by Ramdev in May last year, claiming that 1,000 doctors had died even after getting two doses of the coronavirus vaccine. The Indian Medical Association had filed a police complaint against the yoga guru.
Earlier, in February 2021, Ramdev had released a research paper by Patanjali Ayurved, claiming that Coronil was the “first evidence-based medicine” for treating the coronavirus infection. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Harsh Vardhan, who was the health minister at the time, was present at the event along with Union Minister of Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.
However, on the same day, the World Health Organization, without naming anyone, had clarified that it had not reviewed or certified the effectiveness of any traditional medicine.
At Thursday’s hearing, Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for the doctors’ body, argued that the clarification issued by Ramdev and his company should have clearly mentioned that Coronil was not a cure or medicine for treating Covid-19. Sibal added that he had documents to show that Coronil was still being advertised as a medicine for the disease, Bar and Bench reported.
Senior Advocate PV Kapur, appearing for Ramdev, said that Patanjali Ayurved would submit a better clarification. The court posted the matter for next hearing on August 18.
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