Baba Ram Dev has moved High Court for quashing an FIR against him and his company Patanjali alleging use of maida in Patanjali Marie biscuits which claims to be the 100% atta biscuit. Next hearing is likely on July 5, 2018
The Rajasthan High Court held hearing of a case involving Yoga Guru Baba Ram Dev and his close aide CEO of Patanjali Acharya Balkrishna. Baba Ram Dev and others have moved the High Court pleading to quash an FIR lodged against them in a case where one Sunil Singh of Ajmer has alleged that Baba Ram Dev has wrongly claimed in advertisements that Patanjali’s product Marie Biscuit is completely free from Maida and contain 100% atta.
Sunil Singh submitted his reply before the court in which he has pleaded that just being a Yoga Guru doesn’t give Baba Ram Dev a license to commit crime. Baba had misrepresented the facts about Patanjali biscuits on Astha Channel to mislead the people. He said that Supreme Court has already fixed guidelines regarding quashing of FIRs in a case related to Bhajan Lal. “FIR can be quashed only when the matter comes under those guidelines,” he argued. The single bench of Justice K S Ahluwalia, while taking his reply on record, has postponed the hearing till July 5, 2018.
Singh has produced a lab report before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) in support of his claim after which police had filed an FIR on the directions of CMM under Section 420 and 120B of IPC on January 11, this year.
Baba Ram Dev and Acharya Bal Kishan through his counsel had filed a petition before High Court to quash the FIR claiming that the complaint is baseless.
The Patanjali, on the other hand had rejected all the allegations. Baba Ram Dev’s counsel has challenged the FIR saying that the accusations are baseless. For the manufacturing of biscuits, apart from atta, other ingredients are also used. But in the complaint, it is not quoted how much is the quantity of Maida found in the biscuit sample. He also argued that if at all any irregularity is there it’s not of a criminal nature. “The matter is related to food safety and should be reported under Food Safety Regulations. There is no basis of lodging FIR,” the counsel said.
FEW OTHER CASES ON PATANJALI
- December 2016: A Haridwar court had fined Baba Ramdev promoted Patanjali Ayurveda’s five production units worth Rs 11 lakh for “misbranding and putting up misleading advertisements” of their products.
- May 2017. Nearly 40% of Ayurveda products, including items from Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali, were found to be of substandard quality, a Right to Information (RTI) reply revealed. Out of the 82 samples collected between 2013 and 2016, 32 failed the quality test.
- September 2017: The Delhi High Court has ordered Baba Ramdev owned Patanjali Ayurveda to stop telecasting its soap advertisements on TV. The Court’s order came after Reckitt Benckiser filed a case against Ramdev’s firm Patanjali over downgrading its soap brand-Dettol in its commercials.
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