Patanjali's Coronil a ''cure'' for COVID-19: Delhi HC Reserves Order on Doctors' Plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court reserved its order on a plea by several doctors' associations against yoga guru Baba Ramdev over his alleged "unsubstantiated" claim that 'Coronil' is a "cure" for COVID-19, contrary to the licence granted to the drug for merely being an "immuno-booster".

The plea forms part of a 2021 lawsuit by doctors' associations against the yoga guru, his aide Acharya Balkrishna as well as Patanjali Ayurveda founded by Ramdev, and seeks an interim relief of removal of statements from various media platforms with respect to the claim.

According to the lawsuit, Ramdev made unsubstantiated claims about 'Coronil' being a cure for COVID-19, contrary to the licence granted to the drug for merely being an "immuno-booster", news agency PTI reported.

Ramdev's senior lawyer said he was bound by the undertaking given in the Supreme Court in the case concerning advertisements of Patanjali products, adding that he was willing to make a similar statement in the high court as well.  

According to a PTI report, The plaintiffs' senior lawyer, however, urged the court to pass an order on the interim application stating that the undertaking before the apex court was with regard to not making "causal statements" that are not in compliance with the law.  

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said the matter before him concerned "specific instances" and reserved the order.

The lawsuit was brought to the high court in 2021 by three Resident Doctors' Associations from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh, Patna, and Bhubaneswar, as well as the Association of Resident Doctors, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh; Union of Resident Doctors of Punjab (URDP); Resident Doctors' Association, Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College, Meerut; and the Telangana Junior Doctors' Association, Hyderabad.

In their lawsuit filed through advocate Harshavardhan Kotla, the associations have submitted that the yoga guru, who is a highly influential person, was sowing doubts in the minds of the general public about the safety and efficacy of not only allopathic treatments but also COVID-19 vaccines.

They alleged that the "misinformation" campaign was nothing but an advertisement and marketing strategy to further the sales of the product sold by Ramdev, including 'Coronil', which he claimed to be an alternative treatment for COVID-19.

On October 27, 2021, the high court had issued summons to Ramdev and others on the lawsuit, saying it was not a frivolous matter and a case was "definitely" made out for its institution.