Dabur India Ltd has taken rival firm Patanjali Ayurved to the Delhi High Court over an advertisement it has called disparaging. Dabur has alleged that the company was running a denigrating advertisement against its Chyawanprash products, according to a report by Bar & Bench,
Initially, the court asked the company to refer the case to mediation but later it decided to hear the matter after Dabur pressed for immediate relief.
The report stated that Justice Mini Pushkarna had listed the matter for hearing in the last week of January.
The Patanjali ad mentioned, “Jinko Ayurved aur Vedo ka gyaan nahi, Charak, Sushrut, Dhanwantari aur Chyawanrishi ke parampara mei ‘original’ Chyawanprash kaise bana payenge?” (‘Those who do not have knowledge of Ayurveda and Vedas, how will they be able to make ‘original’ Chyawanprash’).
Senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Dabur said that Patanjali Ayurved has been a habitual offender. He said that by calling Chyawanprash “ordinary”, Patanjali made the product look inferior. He argued that that misleading ads denigrates other brands and create trust issues among consumers.
Patanjali Ayurved’s advertisement was running in TV channels and also appeared in the Delhi edition of Dainik Jagran. Sibal said that these ads have been played 900 times in the last three days.
Meanwhile, Justice Jayant Mehta, who appeared for Patanjali has questioned the maintainability of the suit.
This year, the Supreme Court closed a contempt proceedings against Patanjali Ayurved and co-founders Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna over misleading advertisements case. The FMCG brand was embroiled in a legal battle with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) over misleading claims about allopathy medicines.
The IMA filed a defamation case against the company for spreading misinformation about allopathic medicines and claiming that it introduced drugs that can cure Covid-19 virus.
Patanjali had ran a poser, “Misconceptions Spread by Allopathy: Save Yourself and the Country from Misconceptions Spread through the Pharma and Medical Industry”.
After 2-year of legal battle, both Balkrishna and Ramdev apologized to the apex court and pledged that they would never repeat past conduct.