Dealing a stern blow to Baba Ramdev's company Patanjali Ayurved ltd in connection with a complaint pending for a long time, the ADM finance has slapped a penalty of Rs 11 lakh while accepting the efficacy of the complaint that raised questions on branding. The fine has been imposed under the Packing and labelling Regulations 2011. It has also been stated in the letter dated December 1 that the company would be given a period of 30 days to appeal to the food and safety department if it wished.
However, Patanjali Ayurved ltd is yet to react. Neither Baba Ramdev nor Acharya BalKrishna could be contacted.
On September 25, 2012, Patanjali Ayurved ltd was fined Rs 15 lakh per product amounting to Rs 90 lakh for six products. The officials of Uttarakhand food department had carried out raids on the premises of Divya Yog Mandir Trust run by Ramdev and collected samples of various Ayurvedic medicines on August 16 last year and collected samples of honey, salt, gram flour, mustard oil, juice and pineapple jam from the ashram.
They were later tested at Rudrapur State laboratory. The department had termed the claim on labels of food products like "Arogya Mustard Oil" as 'misleading'.
The report stated that despite the products being manufactured by other manufacturers at other sites, they were being sold under the brand of 'Patanjali' , something which was misleading to the consumers.
When contacted, the district food safety officer Yogendra Pandey said, "The case was long pending and now the ADM court headed by Dr lalit Narayan Mishra has taken the call. There is no problem with the quality of the products, but many products are manufactured elsewhere and their marketing is done from here. Also word 'Arogya' being passed for some products like mustard oil is misleading to the people. It leads them to wonder how mustard oil can help recovery."
While clarifying his stand against the charges leveled by State food and drugs department, Baba Ramdev had earlier said that all products were being manufactured by Patanjali Ayurved ltd following all regulatory requirements laid down by the Government of India under FSSAI Act.
All quality parameters were taken care of while manufacturing the food products and food and safety department, he had said, dubbing the allegations against it as baseless.