Patanjali restrained from running ‘disparaging’ ads about Dabur product

The Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved from running allegedly disparaging advertisements about a product manufactured by consumer goods company Dabur, PTI reported.

Justice Mini Pushkarna passed the interim order on a petition filed by Dabur, which alleged that Patanjali Ayurved was disparaging its Chyawanprash product by claiming that no other manufacturer had the knowledge to prepare it.

Chyawanprash is an Ayurvedic formulation made from a blend of sugar, honey, ghee, Indian gooseberry jam and several herbs and spices. It is sold as a dietary supplement.

The matter arose after Patanjali Ayurved telecast an advertisement featuring Ramdev, in which he questioned the authenticity of Chyawanprash products sold by other companies, Bar and Bench reported.

In its petition, Dabur objected to references in the advertisements that described a “40-herb” Chyawanprash as “ordinary”. This was a reference to Dabur’s product that advertised itself as using “40+ herbs”, it alleged.

Dabur also noted that it was misleading and harmful to label other brands as “ordinary”.

The petition alleged that such statements misrepresented Patanjali Ayurved’s own formulation, questioned Dabur’s adherence to Ayurvedic tradition and branded Dabur’s product as inferior, Bar and Bench reported.

The advertisements undermined confidence in a category of products governed by strict regulatory standards, the petition said. The advertisements also made “untrue” claims that other manufacturers did not...

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