Delhi High Court Restrains Patanjali Ayurved From Running Ads Allegedly Disparaging To Dabur's Chyavanprash Product

The Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained Patanjali Ayurved from running advertisements allegedly disparaging to Dabur's Chyavanprash product.

Justice Mini Pushkarna allowed the interim applications filed by Dabur India Limited against the advertisements ran by Patanjali.

The Court noted that Patanjali's TVC portrayed that the existing Chyawanprash in the market are ordinary and consumers ought not to settle for ordinary products, which are not prepared in accordance with ayurvedic knowledge as they are not manufactured as per ancient ayurvedic texts and tradition.

It added that the narrative assumed more importance coming from the mouth of a person popularly known to be an expert in the field- yoga guru Babar Ramdev.

“The said statement in the impugned TVC, in addition to being false, is also misleading for the reason that the impression created by the defendants, with Mr. Ramdev as the brand ambassador, is that only the defendants have the knowledge of Ayurveda and Vedas, and can make original Chyawanprash, as per the traditions. Whereas, fact of the matter is that Chyawanprash is an ayurvedic medicine as defined under Section 3(a) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, as noted above,” the Court said.

It added that while it may be open for Patanjali to say that „Patanjali Special Chyawanprash‟ is the best, it is not open for it to state that other manufacturers of Chyawanprash lack the necessary knowledge and technical know-how to prepare the same as per ayurvedic texts as the same is firstly, untrue and secondly, misleading to the public at large.

“Electronic advertisements have a larger audience pool and a deeper impact on the viewers, affecting their choices and preferences. Therefore, while dealing with cases of electronic advertisements, Courts have to be mindful of the overall message which an advertisement seeks to communicate,” it said.

Accordingly, the Court directed Patanjali to delete the first two lines, i.e., „Why settle for ordinary Chyawanprash made with 40 herbs?‟ and modify the impugned Print Advertisements in both Hindi and English languages.

The Court also directed Patanjali to delete from the TVC the line i.e., „Jinko Ayurved or Vedon ka gyaan nahi Charak, Sushrut, Dhanvantri aur Chyawanrishi Ki Parampara ke Anuroop, original Chyawanprash kaise bana payenge‟.”

“Similarly, the defendants are directed to delete the lines as given in the last column of the table showing the story board of the impugned TVC, „Toh ordinary Chyawanprash kyu‟, from their TVC. The defendants shall be allowed to run the impugned Print Advertisements and TVC after the aforesaid modifications,” the Court said.

Dabur moved two interim injunction pleas in the suit. Summons were issued in the suit in December last year. In the second injunction application, Dabur alleged that after issuance of summons, Patanjali ran 6,182 advertisements against its product in one week.

Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi appearing for Dabur submitted that Patanjali, in the advertisements, claimed that its product was made using more than 51 herbs whereas only 47 herbs were used.

Sethi said that Patanjali was using mercury in the product which is not fit for consumption of children.

It was also submitted that Patanjali's advertisement specifically refers to Dabur's product made with using 40 herbs as “ordinary.”

He had also said that there was disparagement carried out by Patanjali by calling Dabur as ordinary as if to show that the former was the only one who follows the books and not the latter.

On the other hand, Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta appeared for Patanjali and denied the submissions made by Sethi.

Mehta had said that all the ingredients used in Patanjali's product were as per prescribed formula and fit for human consumption.

Title: Dabur India Limited v. Patanjali Ayurved 

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 737