Baba Ramdev Patanjali Ayurveda’s five production units slapped a fine of ₹11 lakh for “misbranding and putting up misleading advertisements” of their products, a court in Haridwar has ruled. Patanjali have to pay the fine within a month.
Patanjali Ayurved was found guilty of misbranding. The products being shown by the company as produced at its own units were actually manufactured somewhere else, said the court.
After samples of products such as mustard oil, salt, pineapple jam, besan and honey produced by Patanjali had failed quality tests at Rudrapur lab, a case had been filed against the company in 2012 by the District Food Safety Department.
The products were found to be in violation of sections 52-53 of Food Security standards and section 23.1 (5) of Food safety and Standard (packaging and labelling) regulation.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) earlier this year in July had once again caught Patanjali for running “misleading” ad campaigns.
The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) had found that Patanjali’s claim for its ‘Kachi Ghani Mustard Oil’ that rival makers are selling mustard oil “adulterated with oil made by solvent extraction process with neurotoxin containing Hexane”, was not proven.
Patanjali also did not validate its claims for Patanjali Fruit Juice, where it had said the competing brands is selling “expensive juices containing less pulp”.
