The Delhi High Court Friday deferred hearing till August 30 on a lawsuit by several doctors' associations over the use of Coronil and said that judicial propriety and discipline demanded that proceedings be restrained until there is “some clarity” concerning the pendency of allegedly similar issues before the Supreme Court.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani asked that a copy of the petition by the Indian Medical Association pending before the apex court be placed before the high court to enable it to “take a call” on whether there is any “commonality” and if it should proceed any further.
“Judicial discipline demands that I restrain further proceedings in the matter till they (defendants) get some clarity (from the Supreme Court)…. I will ask them to file a copy of the Supreme Court petition on the record here. I will defer the proceedings today,” the judge said.
Several doctors' associations moved to the high court last year, alleging that Ramdev was misleading and misrepresenting to the public at large that allopathy was responsible for the deaths of several people infected by Covid-19 while claiming that Patanjali's Coronil was a cure for the virus.
Senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for the plaintiff associations, said that while he was not aware of the contents of the plea before the top court, there was no order of stay and the matter here required some urgency on account of public interest.
Senior advocate P V Kapur, who represented Ramdev, however, said that the proceedings should be deferred for the time being as the Supreme Court case was similar to the present one.
“We are going to enter appearance (there) and we are going to make the same submissions,” he said.
The court noted that although there was no stay on its proceedings at the moment, some more clarity was needed before continuing to hear the matter.
“I see that there is no stay but I am on propriety. If the same issue is under consideration, looking at the nature of the issue –it is not an A versus B or C versus B issue, if the essential substance of the matter pending before the Supreme Court is the same, I would want more clarity before I proceed with the matter,” the judge said.
Sibal urged the court to ask the defendants to share the plea to enable the court to examine the issue of “commonality” and accordingly decide the course of action.
Three Resident Doctors' Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Rishikesh, Patna, and Bhubaneshwar as well as 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 Telangana Junior Doctors' Association, Hyderabad had moved the high court last year against Ramdev and others.
In their plea filed through advocate Harshavardhan Kotla, the associations had submitted that the yoga guru, who is a highly influential person, was sowing doubts in the minds of the general public concerning the safety and efficacy of not only allopathic treatments but also Covid-19 vaccines.
The plea 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 claims to be an alternative treatment for Covid-19.