Yoga guru Ramdev's company Patanjali Ayurved Ltd has been slapped with a Rs. 11 lakh fine by a city court for misbranding and misrepresentation of its products. The fine has to be paid within a month.
The case had been ongoing since November 2012. The judge, Lalit Narain Mishra, found that the company was guilty of "releasing misleading advertisements by selling certain products with its labels although they were being manufactured by some other firm."
The company was charged under Section 52 (misbranding) and Section 53 (misleading advertisement) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 as well as Section 23.1 (5) of Food Safety and Standard (Packaging and Labelling Regulations, 2011) Act.
The court also ordered the district food safety department to "take appropriate action if there is no improvement in the products in future."
The case was filed against the company in November 2012 by District Food Safety Department when some of the products, including eatables like honey, salt, mustard oil, jam and besan (gram flour) failed quality tests. Tests were conducted at Uttarakhand's only FSSAI-certified drugs and food testing lab located at Rudrapur.
In July, Advertising Standards Council of India or ASCI had pulled up the company for running "misleading" ad campaigns which made light of competitors' products, which is against the ASCI norms.
Patanjali's claim that rivals were making "'Kachi Ghani Mustard Oil' "adulterated with oil made by solvent extraction process with neurotoxin containing Hexane" was found unsubstantiated by the Consumer Complaints Council. The company had also failed to prove that other companies sell "expensive juices containing less pulp". It also failed to prove that "other companies mix 3 to 4 per cent urea and other non-edible things in their cattle feed," compared to their 'Patanjali Dugdhamrut' cattle feed.
