SC expands Patanjali case to include FMCGs, IMA

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court said on Tuesday asked the Centre and State licensing authorities to “activate” themselves to deal with misleading advertisements, noting that it cannot let the public be taken for a ride.

Wuestioning the Centre over an August 2023 letter by the Ministry of Ayush asking the licensing authorities not to initiate or take any action under rule 170 of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, the apex court also pulled up the Indian Medical Association (IMA) about the alleged unethical acts of its members in prescribing expensive medicines for valuable consideration.

While hearing the case related to misleading advertisements by Patanjali Ayurved, a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said there are several other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) companies going that way and the Centre has to respond as to what it has done.

“We can’t let the public be taken for a ride,” the bench observed.

“You can’t just shrug your shoulders and say I have conveyed the complaint to the State authority and it is for them to do what they are doing,” the bench said.

The bench told the IMA’s counsel that while the association is pointing fingers at Patanjali, “the other four fingers are also pointing at you”.

“It is not going to be all just that there are FMCGs. There is you and your members who are prescribing medicines on the strength of recommendations made for which there is valuable consideration from what we understand,” the bench said, adding, “If that is happening, why should not we turn the beam on you?”