The Supreme Court called out Patanjali on April 23rd for their apology ad about past misleading advertisements.
Yoga guru Ramdev and Balkrishna, co-founders of Patanjali Ayurved, were in the news again on Wednesday, April 24th.
The Supreme Court scolded them about the size of their apology ad for misleading advertisements they ran in the past.
In response, Patanjali published a whole new, bigger apology in the newspapers the very next day.
Patanjali just issued a new public apology in bigger fonts! This comes after the Supreme Court of India called them out for not following their previous instructions about an apology for misleading ads. The new apology says they are truly sorry, both as individuals and as a company, for not listening to the Court’s orders. Patanjali’s new apology goes beyond just saying sorry for the size of their previous ad.
They specifically apologize for:
Not following the court’s instructions from November 22nd, 2023. Running misleading advertisements in the past.
They promise to sincerely follow the court’s orders and all relevant laws from now on. Before the latest issue about the apology ad size, Ramdev and Balkrishna had already apologized to the Supreme Court.
Their earlier apology was for past advertisements by Patanjali that made exaggerated claims about how well their products worked as medicine. Things got heated between Ramdev, Balkrishna, and the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The Court wasn’t happy with how prominently Patanjali had published its previous apology for misleading ads. In other words, they thought the apology wasn’t big or noticeable enough in the newspapers.
The Supreme Court wasn’t letting Ramdev and Balkrishna off the hook easily. During the hearing, the Justices asked them, “Is this apology as big and noticeable as the ads you usually run in newspapers?”
Their lawyer tried to defend them by saying they had already issued a full apology for their mistakes the day before.
The Supreme Court wasn’t satisfied with just hearing that Ramdev and Balkrishna had apologized. The Justices pressed further, asking “Where exactly was this apology published?”
Their lawyer replied that it appeared in 67 newspapers across India. But the Court wasn’t done yet. They wanted to know if the apology was published prominently, meaning easy to see.
They even requested a copy of the actual apology printed in the newspapers to be included in the official court record.
The Supreme Court pointed out that they didn’t have copies of the original misleading advertisements in the court record. Ramdev and Balkrishna’s lawyer assured them the ads would be collected and submitted to the court that same day, with copies sent to all the lawyers involved in the case. They promised to get everything sorted within two days.
Also read: Supreme Court Criticizes Both Sides in Medical Misinformation Case
The Supreme Court decided to wait until April 30th to address the issue of the size and placement of Ramdev and Balkrishna’s apology.
