A court in Kerala’s Palakkad has issued bailable arrest warrants against Patanjali Ayurved founders Ramdev and Balkrishna in a case about allegedly misleading advertisements published by the company, Live Law reported on Monday.

The warrants were issued on January 16. A third warrant was also issued for Divya Pharmacy, the marketing arm of Patanjali Ayurved.

This came a day after the Supreme Court warned states and Union territories of contempt proceedings if they failed to act against individuals and companies publishing misleading medical advertisements.

The warrants were issued after the yoga guru and the company’s managing director failed to appear before the court, which registered the case in October.

The matter relates to advertisements published by Divya Pharmacy in Malayalam and English newspapers that allegedly violated several provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Objectionable Advertisements Act, 1954.

The advertisements claimed that the products could cure high blood pressure and diabetes, according to The Hindu.

The Palakkad court has listed the matter for hearing next on February 1.

Divya Pharmacy, Ramdev and Balkrishna are facing 10 such cases in Kerala – four in Kozhikode, three in Palakkad, two in Ernakulam and one in Thiruvananthapuram – and one in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar.

Patanjali Ayurved was founded by Ramdev and Balkrishna in 2006.

The company has been criticised by the Supreme Court for publishing misleading advertisements against modern medicine and the Covid-19 vaccination drive. The Indian Medical Association was the petitioner in the case.

In November 2023, the court had warned that it could impose a penalty of Rs 1 crore for every false claim made in each of the company’s advertisements claiming miracle cures.

In February 2024, the Supreme Court initiated contempt proceedings against Patanjali and Balkrishna.

On April 10, 2024, the court rejected Patanjali’s apology in the case and said that Balkrishna and Ramdev only expressed remorse after being “caught on the wrong foot”.

After the court reprimanded the company again on April 16, 2024, Patanjali Ayurved apologised for the “mistake of publishing advertisements and holding a press conference” even after it assured the court that it would cease to promote products with dubious claims.

The court had said it was concerned about companies deceiving customers and endangering public health and ordered Patanjali to remove its suspended products from shelves by May 14.

In August 2024, the top court closed contempt proceedings against the company, Ramdev and Balkrishna after they tendered an unconditional apology.

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A brief history of Patanjali’s dangerous claims