Delhi HC orders Ramdev to remove remark claiming Coronil as Covid-19 'cure'

The Delhi High Court instructed Ramdev to remove the contentious content from social media within three days

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed Ramdev to remove all claims attributing the deaths of lakhs of people during the Covid-19 pandemic to allopathy doctors, while promoting Patanjali’s Coronil as a ‘cure’, reported LiveLaw.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued an interim order restraining Ramdev, his associate Balkrishna, and Patanjali Ayurveda from making such allegations. “I have directed the defendants to take down certain tweets within three days. If they fail to comply, the social media intermediaries will remove the content,” stated the bench.

The court was hearing a defamation suit filed by several medical associations, including the Resident Doctors’ Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rishikesh, Patna, and Bhubaneswar; the Association of Resident Doctors at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research in Chandigarh; the Union of Resident Doctors of Punjab (URDP); the Resident Doctors' Association at Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College in Meerut; and the Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association in Hyderabad.

The suit alleges that Ramdev and his associates made several false claims that need to be retracted, such as:

• Allopathy is responsible for the deaths of lakhs of people due to Covid-19.

• Allopathic doctors have caused the deaths of thousands of patients.

• Allopathic doctors have been profiteering from patients and advising medicines that act as poison.

The medical associations argued that these misleading claims by Patanjali were creating doubts in the minds of the general public about the safety and efficacy of allopathic treatments and Covid-19 vaccines. As an interim measure, the suit sought to restrain Ramdev, Balkrishna, and Patanjali Ayurveda from making defamatory allegations against allopathy and promoting Coronil as a cure for Covid-19.

The doctors further alleged public nuisance and misrepresentation by Ramdev for making statements against allopathic medicine and doctors while promoting Coronil.

“The misinformation campaign regarding the alleged ill-effects and lack of efficacy of allopathy during the ongoing pandemic has the propensity to divert people from allopathic treatments prescribed as the standard form of care even by the Government of India, thereby directly violating the right to health of persons in India, which is a facet of Article 21 of the Constitution,” the suit filed by the doctors stated.