Machinery for citizens to flag misleading advertisements needed: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday underscored the importance of creating a mechanism for citizens to file complaints on misleading advertisements.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said the Drug and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 was of vital importance.

“This Act is most vital,” the bench observed while saying it was essential to comply with its provisions.

It said a machinery had to be set up for the citizens who wanted to file complaints over misleading advertisements.

The bench said it would consider the aspect on March 7.

It also dealt with the issue concerning compliance of Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 by Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and union territory of Puducherry.

The top court on August 27 last year stayed a notification issued by the Ministry of Ayush, which omitted Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 that prohibits misleading advertisements of Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani drugs.

During the hearing on Monday, the bench was informed that in Karnataka, no prosecution

was initiated in 25 cases of alleged misleading advertisements due to lack of material particulars.

“According to us, these are only excuses given by the state of Karnataka. They have their own police machinery, cyber cell. It is very easy for them to find out the sources of these advertisements, provided there is a will on the state’s part to do so,” the bench observed.

It asked the Karnataka government to ascertain the wrongdoers and place a compliance report before the court within a month.

Senior advocate Shadan Farasat, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said as far as Kerala was concerned, there was proper

implementation of the Rule in the state.

While hearing the matter on February 10, the apex court slammed several states, including Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, summoning their chief secretaries over the “failure” to act against illegal advertisements of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs.

The bench had directed the chief secretaries of these states to appear before it through video-conferencing to explain why these states were non-compliant.

Clamping down on misleading advertisements, the apex court on May 7, 2024 directed that before an advertisement was

permitted to be issued, a self-declaration be obtained from the advertisers on the line of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.

The issue of misleading advertisements had cropped up when the apex court was hearing a plea filed in 2022 by the Indian Medical Association

alleging a smear campaign by Patanjali and yoga guru Ramdev against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine.