The Supreme Court on Thursday fined an Ayurveda doctor Rs 10,000 for claiming to have discovered a cure for the novel coronavirus, News18 reported. Haryana-based Omprakash Vaid Gyantara had sought a direction from the court that his “medicine” be used by all doctors and hospitals in the country to treat patients diagnosed with Covid-19.
The plea claimed that Gyantara has discovered a cure in the form of a “desi version” of the medicine. However, the bench led by Justice Sanjay K Kaul took a serious view of the very filing of the public interest litigation. The court said it seemed Gyantara had filed the petition to seek attention and publicity.
The court took the view that the directions sought in Gyantara’s PIL were completely misconceived, and that it was time to send a message that people should not approach the court with such frivolous demands. “We are of the view that such kind of petitions must be stopped as anybody and everybody thinks they have some cure for the situation,” the bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kaul, Ajay Rastogi and Aniruddha Bose said. “Such wastage of judicial time is completely inappropriate.”
The court ordered the petitioner to deposit Rs 10,000 as fine with the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Welfare Fund within four weeks.
In June, yoga guru Ramdev produced a concoction that he claimed could cure the coronavirus. Ramdev claimed the “medicines”, named Coronil and Swasari, showed 100% favourable results during clinical trials on affected patients at Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar. He added that his company took all the required permissions from the production stage to its clinical trials.
However, the licence officer of Uttarakhand Ayurved department said that Patanjali never disclosed that its new medicine kit was for coronavirus when it applied for a licence. The officer said the herbal products company sought a licence for an “immunity booster and a cough and fever cure”. The Ministry of AYUSH subsequently asked Ramdev to stop the advertisements of the new drugs as a cure for the coronavirus.
India’s coronavirus tally crossed the 29-lakh mark on Friday morning. With 68,898 new cases in 24 hours, the count rose to 29,05,823, while the toll increased by 983 to 54,849. There are now 6,92,028 active cases in India, while as many as 21,58,946 people have recovered.
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