The Supreme Court on Friday instructed the states of Bihar and Chhattisgarh to provide updates on the criminal cases pending against yoga guru and entrepreneur Ramdev. The cases stem from his alleged derogatory comments about modern medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago.
The Bihar and Chhattisgarh state units of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) filed the cases in response to a video in which Ramdev advised his followers not to rely on allopathy, the term used for modern medicine in India, to treat COVID-19. The video surfaced in May 2021.
Ramdev has petitioned the court to combine the two first information reports (FIRs) and hold the trial in Delhi. The court agreed to hear his plea after the summer break, which begins on May 20 and ends in July. The IMA state units will have the opportunity to present their responses before any decisions are made regarding Ramdev’s request to merge or dismiss the cases.
The court directed the Bihar and Chhattisgarh governments to provide the status of the two FIRs within two weeks. Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Ramdev, said he will include the complainants in the two FIRs. Although the IMA’s central body was present in court, the bench asked for the state units of IMA to be added as parties.
The court also noted a larger case against Ramdev, filed by the national IMA, related to misleading advertisements by Patanjali in December 2023 and January 2024. Ramdev retracted his statements after receiving a letter from then-Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who described his remarks as “inappropriate.”
