Ramdev asked to clarify issue over use of Coronil

Court declines to accept draft clarification given by the yoga guru

August 05, 2022 01:45 am | Updated 01:45 am IST - New Delhi

Delhi High Court

Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked yoga guru Ramdev to give an appropriate and acceptable clarification to settle the ongoing case filed by several doctors’ associations accusing him of making statements against allopathic medicines and claiming Patanjali’s Coronil kit is a cure for COVID-19.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani told Ramdev not to “mince words and say that Coronil is not a cure for COVID-19” while declining to accept the draft clarification given by the yoga guru.

In the draft clarification, Mr Ramdev said that Coronil, apart from being an immunity booster, was a supplementary measure for the management of COVID-19.

Justice Bhambhani said, “I am not comfortable with the draft. The whole drift seems to be wrong. The whole drift seems to be to justify. The way it is drafted, if there is bona fide thought, it is concealed”.

Senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for the Doctors’ associations, said that “every statement” in the draft clarification was “factually wrong”. Mr. Sibal said Mr Ramdev should clarify that Coronil was not a medicine for treatment for COVID-19 or its cure and that it was an immunity booster.

Senior advocate P.V. Kapur, representing Ramdev, “We have clearly omitted the word cure from the entire statement that we have now placed… The Ministry says you [Patanjali] will not advertise it as a cure for COVID-19 on the cover. And we are not advertising it as a cure”.

The senior advocate said that not a single document is on record to show that anybody has suffered. “There is no vaccine hesitancy. Two crore people have taken the vaccine. Treatment is being done. If there was a disparaging statement made vis a vis allopathic doctors, that has been withdrawn and apologised for,” Mr Kapur said.

Justice Bhambhani, however, said, “This seems to be more like a pat on the back. This is like a disclaimer rather than a clarification. The point is...you gave the public two impressions — one is that allopathic doctors don’t have a cure, they are themselves dying of the disease, and two, that Coronil is a cure”.

The judge said that any confusion with regards to the use of Coronil shouyld to be addressed urgently in view of the rise in number of COVID-19 cases. It posted the case for further hearing on August 17.

The doctors’ associations include three Resident Doctors’ Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Rishikesh, Patna and Bhubaneshwar, Association of Resident Doctors, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, Union of Resident Doctors’ of Punjab (URDP); Resident Doctors’ Association, Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College, Meerut and Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association, Hyderabad.

Their suit alleged that Ramdev mislead and misrepresented the public at large that allopathy was responsible for the deaths of several people infected by COVID-19, and insinuating that allopathic doctors were causing deaths of the patients.

The associations have submitted that the yoga guru was sowing doubts in the minds of general public with respect to the safety and efficacy of not only allopathic treatments but also COVID-19 vaccines.

It said that being a highly influential person, they apprehended that Mr Ramdev’s statements can influence lakhs of people and divert them from allopathic treatment which are prescribed as the standard form of care even by the government.

The associations alleged in the plea that the misinformation campaign was nothing but an advertisement and marketing strategy to further the sales of the product sold by Ramdev, including Coronil which claims to be an alternative treatment for COVID-19.

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