Uttarakhand authority suspends licenses of 14 Patanjali products, informs SC

The Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority (SLA) for Ayurvedic and Unani Services on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it had suspended licenses of 14 Patanjali products with immediate effect for repeated violations pertaining to Drugs and Cosmetics rule, 1945.

The SLA headed by Joint Director Mithilesh Kumar filed an affidavit before the apex court and also issued an unconditional and unqualified apology against any inadvertent and unintentional non-compliance with the orders, reported lawbeat.in.

Hearing a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahasanuddin Amanullah had on April 10 asked the SLA to inform it about the actions it had taken against the company for its alleged misleading claims.

In the affidavit, the SLA said that it had issued order dated April 15, 2024, to Divya Pharmacy and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., “stating therein that the manufacturing licences for 14 of their products, namely ‘Swasari Gold’, ‘Swasari Vati’, ‘Bronchom’, ‘Swasari Pravahi’, ‘Swasari Avaleh’, ‘Mukta Vati Extra Power’, ‘Lipidom’, ‘Bp Grit’, ‘Madhugrit’, ‘Madhunashini Vati Extra Power’, ‘Livamrit Advance’, ‘Livogrit’, ‘Eyegrit Gold’ and ‘Patanjali Drishti Eye Drop’, are suspended with immediate effect…”.

The action comes days after the Supreme Court rebuked the state authority over its failure to act against the companies and warned to take contempt action against them.

The SLA also said that “on 16.04.2024, the Drug Inspector/District Ayurvedic and Unani Officer, Haridwar, filed a criminal complaint before the CJM Haridwar, against Swami Ramdev, Acharya Balkrishna, Divya Pharmacy and Patanjali Ayurved Limited under Sections 3, 4 and 7 of the DMR Act”.

The SLA added that it had on April 23 written to all Ayurvedic, Unani medicine factories in Uttarakhand giving reference of Ministry of AYUSH’s letter which directed “every Ayurvedic/ Unani medicine factory shall strictly comply with the Drug and Magic Remedies Act, 1954; no pharmaceutical factory will use claims like approved/ certified by the Ministry of AYUSH on the label of its product…”

The apex court will consider the matter on April 30 on actions taken by the state authority.

On April 10, the Supreme Court had blasted the official authorities of the State of Uttarakhand for not acting over the misleading advertisements being posted by Patanjali since 2018.

The court accordingly directed all officials who held position from 2018 will file replies before the court on what they did in the issue.