The draft clarification was meant to dispel claims by Ramdev and his company, Patanjali, that Coronil is a cure for COVID-19, however, the court noted that it read more like a “pat on the back”.
The Delhi high court on Thursday, August 4, refused to accept the proposed clarification submitted by yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his company, Patanjali, on claims that its drug, Coronil, can be used as a cure for COVID-19.
Listing the matter for August 17, the court allowed the company to come up with another clarification, noting that the present draft submitted to the court reads more as a justification rather than a withdrawal of the objectionable claims.
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The court was hearing a petition moved last year by the Resident Doctors Association, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh and a number of other doctors’ associations which alleged misrepresentation and public nuisance by Ramdev and his company while marketing Coronil as a cure for COVID-19, which included disparaging remarks about allopathic medicine and doctors.
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In the last hearing in the case in July this year, Patanjali and Ramdev had told the court that they were willing to issue a public clarification on the issue being raised by the petitioners and the court had directed the two parties to come up with said clarification together.
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However, in the present hearing, the petitioners (the doctors’ associations) told the court that the draft clarification Ramdev and his company had come up with was not agreeable to them.
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After reading the draft clarification prepared by Ramdev’s legal team, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani remarked that the statement reads “more like a pat on… the defendant’s back”.
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“This is like a disclaimer rather than a clarification,” the judge observed. Ramdev’s draft clarification, claiming that there has been a lot of “misinformation, misinterpretation and misunderstanding” surrounding his statements about Coronil, reads as follows:
“It is categorically and expressly clarified that the product Coronil apart from being an immunity booster, especially against respiratory tract involvement and for all types of fever, is additionally an evidence-based supporting measure for management of Covid-19.”
With respect to the yoga guru’s adverse statements about doctors and allopathy, Ramdev and Patanjali noted that he had already issued a public apology to doctors and proposed that the clarification would include the statement that he has utmost respect for doctors and the medical community.
Source: The Wire
