Four years on, government keeps draft amendment to drugs ad law in cold storage

The response of the ministry came after the Supreme Court’s severe drubbing of yoga guru Baba Ramdev for circulating misleading advertisements of his Ayush products, which included eye drops, Drishti eye drops, with the claim that they treat glaucoma or cataracts, double vision, colour vision, retinitis pigmentosa, and night blindness.According to the DMR Act of 1954, advertising such claims is prohibited.Kerala-based Dr K V Babu said he had filed a fresh RTI on November 4, keeping in mind the apex court warning to Patanjali Ayurved that they would “come down heavily” on them if they are found to violate any of its orders on advertising misleading ads of its Ayush products.“It is surprising that the government has been sitting over its proposed draft amendment to the DMR Act to curb misleading ads for more than four years. There is no movement of the files for the last two years,” he told this paper.“I wonder if the ‘ease of doing business’ is more important for the government than public health, even after the SC seized the matter in the Patanjali Ayurved case,” said Dr Babu, who had relentlessly pursued action against Ramdev for the past several years.



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