The Supreme Court on Tuesday suggested the Ministry of Ayush to create a centralised dashboard for providing information to the citizens about the action taken on their complaints about misleading advertisements..
A bench of Justices, Hima Kohli and Sandeep Mehta, said that they are of the opinion that the Ministry of Ayush must set up a dashboard mentioning complaints received from states and action taken on those complaints.
The court further said that with this, the data will be made available in public domain to all consumers. The court further said that the dashboard will help address the aspect of prosecution under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
The court noted non-availability of the data related to complaints on misleading ads and said that such things make consumers helpless and they remain in the dark regarding action taken on the complaints.
The top court also noted the suggestion given by the Amicus on the strong need for centralised routing of complaints.
The court was dealing with an Indian Medical Association plea seeking to frame guidelines for prohibiting false and misleading advertisements in relation to allopathy and modern medicine.
The petition also raised the issue of the campaign of misguidance, misinformation and disparagement against the modern system of medicine.
In his plea, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) also raised allegations against Patanjali Ayurveda and its promoters, Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna for misleading advertisements.
Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna have earlier tendered an unconditional apology in regard to misleading advertisements by Patanjali Ayurveda and said that they undertake to always uphold the majesty of law and justice.
(ANI)
