The Delhi High Court on Friday sought response from Yoga guru Ramdev on a lawsuit filed by several doctors’ associations accusing him of spreading misinformation through his statements against allopathy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Justice C. Hari Shankar granted him a week’s time to submit his response. “Public nuisance has some consequences on the defendant [Mr. Ramdev]. It is open to the defendant to say that there is no case. Can’t say that I won’t give him an opportunity,” the court said.
The court’s remark came after senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for the doctors’ associations, argued that to grant permission to institute the suit, the court had to only look at the plea before it and need not seek the other party’s response.
The court will hear the case on August 10.
The petitioners are 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.
They alleged that Mr. Ramdev was misleading and misrepresenting to the public at large that allopathy was responsible for several people infected with COVID-19 dying, and insinuating that allopathic doctors were causing the deaths. 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 Mr. Ramdev being a highly influential person, it was apprehended that the statements could influence lakhs of people and dissuade them from taking allopathic treatment 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 products sold by Mr. Ramdev, including Coronil which claims to be an alternative treatment for COVID-19.
