NEW DELHI: Expanding the ambit of its proceedings on
misleading advertisements
beyond those for Patanjali Ayurveda products,
Supreme Court
on Tuesday sought response from the Centre and states on actions taken against other
FMCG companies
for luring people with
deceptive promotions
to consume their products.
A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also decided to examine the unethical practice of doctors prescribing expensive and unnecessary medicines to patients for some consideration and asked the Indian Medical Association, the petitioner in the contempt case against Patanjali Ayurveda and its promoters, to put its house in order and sought response on action taken against erring doctors.
IMA itself has been criticised in the past for endorsing products of big pharmaceutical companies.
“What are you doing to rein in those members of your association in the allopathic field is a question we need to ask you too,” the bench told senior advocate P S Patwalia who was appearing for IMA. “This is not going to be all just that there are FMCGs, there are you and your members who are prescribing medicines on the strength of recommendations made for which there is valuable consideration… If that’s happening, why should we not turn the beam at you?”
The court said FMCG firms cannot be allowed to take people of this country “for a ride”, particularly babies, children and senior citizens who consume their products and are more prone to
health risks
. Observing that it is more concerned about the health of common people who fall prey to misleading advertisements, the bench said that its intention was not to target any one but to send a message that violation of law would not be allowed.
“We are not here to gun for a particular party, it is in the larger interest of the public on how they are being misled,” the bench said. It said that the purpose of the proceedings is to protect faceless people who consume medicines and other products under the impression created by misleading advertisements.
As the ambit of the proceedings got expanded, the court also arraigned the Centre’s consumer affairs department and the ministry of information and broadcasting as parties to the case along with all state licensing authorities under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, a law that regulates advertising of drugs and prohibits ads of medicines and remedies that claim to have magical properties.
The bench directed all the parties to file their response on action taken by them against violation of law in the last three years.
English (US) ·