New Delhi: Hepatologist Dr Cyraic Abby Philips has moved the Karnataka high court against X (formerly Twitter) and Himalaya Wellness Corporation for the restoration of his popular account @theliverdr or ‘The Liver Doc’.
He confirmed to The Wire that a petition had been filed, without going into any further details. According to LiveLaw, the petition was filed on Friday and is likely to be mentioned before a single-judge bench of Justice S.G. Pandit on Monday for an early hearing.
X withheld his account in India on September 28 after a Bengaluru civil court passed an ex-parte, interim injunction order against him in a case filed by Himalaya, which had claimed the doctor made defamatory statements against company products like Liv-52.
Before his X account was suspended, Philips countered practices in alternate medicine systems like Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy that he said caused liver damage in patients.
Talking to The Wire at that time, Philips said that since it was an ex-parte injunction, he did not get the chance to make his defence, adding that his posts were evidence-based and were available for public review.
Philips has garnered a lot of support from doctors, patients and many others on social media after his account was suspended. The Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH), a pan-India network of doctors, issued a press statement on October 3 in support. It was the first organisation of doctors to do so.
“We believe that this doctor, among others, have been rendering yeoman service to the people of India by identifying non-scientific methodologies of the purported cures; and exposing harmful effects of some of them,” they wrote.
The ADEH also added, “The doctor was not served any legal notice and to suspend his account in such an arbitrary fashion is unusual. We are puzzled as to what constitutes urgency in this case, for the court to take such a step.”
Himalaya had alleged that Philips had been “posting derogatory statements against the products of the company due to which it has lost substantial business”. It had also accused Philips of working at the behest of companies like Cipla and Alchem – an allegation that Philips said was preposterous.
“Rather it’s me who finds the order defamatory. Himalaya has alleged I was writing Twitter posts [debunking myths of certain ayurveda products] on behalf of certain companies and to promote their products…But Himalaya failed to give any evidence to prove this claim,” he had said.
The defamation suit filed by Himalaya has sought Rs 10 crore (Rs 1.2 million) in damages from him.
Another company, another notice
In another incident, a Chennai-based ayurveda firm Kesari Kuteeram Private Limited, has sent a legal notice to him. Philips posted about the death of a pregnant woman after she consumed the company’s herbal product Madhiphala Rasayanam because of “severe herbal liver injury”. His lab would review and analyse the product, he said.
It is to be noted that Philips did not accuse the company’s product of causing the death, only that he was asked to analyse and review its composition.
Photo: Screengrab via X
Kesari Kuteeram said in the notice that his conclusion was based on ‘hearsay’, ‘wholly incorrect’ and ‘defamatory’ against the company. It also said the ‘goodwill of the client’ has been ‘degraded’. It also accused Philips of having a bias against the ‘herbal healthcare system’ in general.
The notice demanded he delete his tweet, issue an apology, and pay Rs 1 crore in damages. Philips said he stood by this post and that he would respond to the notice from the company appropriately. He has received such notices from several other Ayurvedic companies in the past and has been responding to them.
The company on its website says the drug is safe for use during the first trimester of pregnancy. However, no data is available in the public domain to attest to this claim or evidence from any clinical trial to arrive at this conclusion.
Photo: Screengrab
The Wire has written an email to Kesari Kuteeram. Its response will be added if and when it is received.
Ayurvedic companies have also complained against Philips to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). In one instance, the complaint came after he explained the harmful effects of the reckless use of Giloy to a YouTube channel.
Also Read: As COVID Surged, India Had a Silent Outbreak of Giloy-Induced Liver Injury
The PMO forwarded the complaint to the National Medical Commission (NMC) with which doctors are registered. The NMC, in turn, sent the complaint to Kerala State Medical Council. The Kerala Council found that Philips’s statements were evidence-backed and did not find merit in complaint against him.
Philips had also written to the PMO warning against the reckless promotion of giloy and cited several studies in the context. His letter received no response.
