New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, August 23, criticised Yoga guru Baba Ramdev for making statements against allopathy and modern medicine while promoting his own Ayurvedic cures.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana and Justices Hima Kohli and C.T. Ravikumar was hearing a petition by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) seeking to restrain Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha (AYUSH) companies, such as Ramdev’s company Patanjali, from issuing negative advertisements and statements against modern medicine, particularly against the COVID-19 vaccine drive.

The counsel for the IMA said AYUSH companies have been making “disparaging” statements about allopathy by saying that doctors have been taking allopathy medicines but were still succumbing to COVID-19. Further, the IMA argued that such remarks will cause “serious prejudice” to doctors if allowed to continue unabated.

While acknowledging Ramdev’s contribution to making yoga popular, CJI Ramana in particular criticised the Yoga guru for making adverse remarks on modern medicine.

"What happened to Baba Ramdev? He can popularise his system, but why should he criticise other systems.We all respect him, he popularised yoga but he shouldn't criticise other systems. What is the guarantee that his system will work? He cannot refuse doctor system. He must exercise restraint in abusing other systems,” Live Law quoted CJI Ramana as saying.

In its plea, the IMA sought directions to the Union government, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), to take action against the aforementioned campaigns which seek to promote traditional medicine by disparaging allopathy.

As such, the court issued notice to the aforesaid bodies as well as the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Ramdev’s company, Patanjali.

Case in the Delhi high court

The IMA’s petition was being heard by the top court even as a similar petition by a number of doctors’ associations is underway before a bench of the Delhi high court.

In that case, the petitioners argued that Ramdev and Patanjali were spreading misinformation and were misrepresenting traditional medicine in their efforts to market their product, ‘Coronil’ as a cure for COVID-19. As such, it was argued that Ramdev was “bashing” vaccines.

During the course of the hearing, Ramdev’s lawyers had agreed to draft a statement clarifying that ‘Coronil’ was not, in fact, a cure for COVID and to withdraw the statements made against doctors and modern medicine. However, one stipulation of the court was that the petition-doctors’ associations must agree to the same, which did not happen for the first such statement.

Also read: 'Be Clear In Your Communication': Delhi HC Rejects Ramdev's Draft Clarification On Coronil

In the most recent hearing, the single-judge bench of Justice Anup J. Bhambhani expressed concerns that the name of Ayurveda was being tarnished through Patanjali and Ramdev’s claims and urged the respondents “not to say anything more than is official”.

Another concern the judge made note of was with regards to Ramdev’s claims, according to news agency PTI, that US President Joe Biden had contracted COVID-19 despite taking a booster dose of the vaccine.

"The second is, here people are being named. It can have international consequences for our relations, country's relations with foreign countries….leaders are being named which will affect our good relations with foreign nations," Live Law had quoted Justice Bhambhani as saying.

The matter has been placed for further hearing on August 23.

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