The Delhi High Court on Monday directed yoga guru Baba Ramdev to remove “offending posts and content” from social media that blame allopathy for the deaths of lakhs during the Covid-19 pandemic while promoting Patanjali’s Coronil as a “cure” for the virus.
The order, issued by Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani, came in response to an interim injunction application filed by various doctors’ associations in 2021. The court mandated that the identified posts and content be removed within three days.
“There are directions for taking down of some of the offending posts and content. There are directions to the defendant to take down those set of tweets in three days,” Justice Bhambhani stated.
The court further stated that if the direction is not complied with, the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) will remove the content.
The plea is part of a 2021 lawsuit filed by doctors’ associations against Ramdev, his associate Acharya Balkrishna, and Patanjali Ayurveda.
Justice Bhambhani had reserved his order on the issue on May 21 after hearing the parties involved.
The lawsuit alleges that Ramdev made “unsubstantiated claims” about “Coronil” being a cure for Covid-19, contrary to the drug’s license, which only permits it to be marketed as an “immuno-booster.”
In 2021, several doctors’ associations—including those from the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh, Patna, and Bhubaneswar, the Association of Resident Doctors at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, the Union of Resident Doctors of Punjab, the Resident Doctors’ Association of Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College in Meerut, and the Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association in Hyderabad—moved the high court against Ramdev and the others.
They alleged that there was a misinformation campaign and a marketing strategy aimed at boosting sales of Ramdev’s products, including “Coronil,” which falsely claimed to be an alternative treatment for Covid-19.
On October 27, 2021, the high court issued a summons to Ramdev and the others, stating that the lawsuit was not frivolous and that a case for its consideration had “definitely” been established.
(With inputs from PTI)
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