Patanjali challenges Delhi HC order restraining it from airing 'disparaging' chyawanprash ads

New Delhi, Sep 11 (PTI) Yoga guru Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved Limited has filed a plea in the Delhi High Court challenging a single judge order restraining it from running "disparaging" advertisements against Dabur Chyawanprash.

The petition, which is likely to come up for hearing on Friday before a division bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla, has challenged the July 3 order which said that a strong prima facie case of disparagement was apparent in both TV and print ads.

In the July order, Justice Mini Pushkarna allowed an interim injunction on Dabur's plea and directed Patanjali to delete the line "Why settle for ordinary chyawanprash made with 40 herbs?" from print advertisements and modify it accordingly in Hindi.

She also directed Patanjali to delete the line "Jinko Ayurved or Vedon ka gyan nahi Charak, Sushrut, Dhanvantri aur Chyawanrishi Ki Parampara ke Anuroop, original chyawanprash kaise bana payenge?" from its advertisement.

Patanjali was further directed to delete the line "Toh ordinary chyawanprash kyu?".

The bench said Patanjali shall be allowed to run the print and TV advertisements after the modifications.

In its petition, Patanjali has claimed before the court that its commercial made no reference to Dabur.

The judge noted in the July 3 order that the TV commercial (TVC) was narrated by Ramdev, an acknowledged yoga and Vedic expert, who appeared in person in the advertisement.

The narrative of the commercial assumes more importance coming from the mouth of a person popularly known to be an expert in the field, the judge said.

The said statements in the commercial, in addition to being false, were also misleading for the reason that the impression created by Patanjali, with Ramdev as the brand ambassador, was that only the defendants had the knowledge of Ayurveda and Vedas and hence could make chyawanprash as per the traditions.

There is no requirement for a manufacturer to have knowledge of Ayurveda and Vedas to make chyawanprash, the bench said.

The petition filed by Dabur before the single judge bench alleged "Patanjali Special Chyawanprash" was "disparaging Dabur Chyawanprash specifically" and chyawanprash in general, by claiming that "no other manufacturer has the knowledge to prepare chyawanprash" -- constituting generic disparagement.

It further claimed that the advertisement used the prefix "ordinary" with respect to all other chyawanprash, denoting that they were "inferior".

The advertisement also made "untrue" claims that all other manufacturers had no knowledge of Ayurvedic texts and the formulae used to prepare chyawanprash, it said. PTI UK DIV DIV