The Supreme Court warned to initiate a contempt proceeding against states and union territories that failed to act against misleading medical advertisements. The warning comes after senior lawyer Shadan Farasat submitted his report on false and misleading advertisements. He was asked to monitor the implementation of actions against advertisements that violate Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement Act), or the DMR Act, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DC Act) and the Consumer Protection Act (CPA Act).
The bench reviewing the report consisted of Justice Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan who said, “We make it clear that wherever we find non-compliance by the states or union territories, we will take action under the contempt of courts act against the concerned state or union territories.”
Advocate Farasat Report
Farasat is acting as an ‘Amicus Curiae’ (literally meaning ‘Friend of the Court’). His report indicated that several states were slow in pursuing cases against companies and individuals under the three laws.
The report made references to a case against entrepreneur Ramdev, who has been non-cooperative with the criminal trial pending against him before the chief Justice magistrate in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand. The case was adjourned on five of the seven dates due to the absence of the accused, ‘Yogi’ Ramdev. While on two occasions, even the presiding judge was on leave.
His report further states that “Given the seriousness of the issue, the amicus (Farasat himself) has furnished the details of non-appearance of the respondent No.7 (Ramdev) on the last seven dates in the pending case….. it has come to the attention of the amicus that respondent No.7 is not cooperating with the ongoing legal proceeding against him under the Drug and Magical Remedies Act of 1954.”
Role of Indian Medical Association (IMA)
The proceedings against misleading advertisement originated from a petition filed by IMA against Ramdev and Balakrishnan, the two founders of Patanjali Ayurveda. They were charged for allegedly making misleading claims about the effectiveness and benefits of their products.
With the coming of the latest Farasat report, the epic court is expected to take up the first batch of monitoring of actions taken by the states of Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Many states hadn’t invoked the laws or charged penalties against violators in spite of repeatedly committing the offence. The report stated that ‘it was the absence of Ayurvedic pharmaceutical units within the territorial jurisdiction of many states and union territories’ that led to inaction by state authorities.
Many states are under the misunderstanding that if the pharmaceutical unit is not established or registered in the state, authorities are not entitled to take action under the DMR act. However, this is incorrect, as stated in the Farasat Report.
The Farasat report also claimed that “Under section 9A of the DMR act, the offences are cognizable and the only mechanism for enforcement of the DMR act is registration and prosecution of these offences.”
Yet the police are not registering complaints of this nature, added Advocate Farasat’s report.
