{"id":174888,"date":"2025-11-11T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/174888\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:03:10","slug":"patanjali-stopped-by-court-from-airing-dhoka-chyawanprash-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/174888\/","title":{"rendered":"Patanjali stopped by court from airing ‘Dhoka’ Chyawanprash ad"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Delhi High Court<\/a> has debarred Patanjali Ayurved<\/a> from using (in broadcasting, publications and elsewhere) an advertisement that described rival chyawanprash products as \u201cdhoka\u201d (deception). The court held that the commercial unfairly discredited other ayurvedic manufacturers and directed the company to withdraw the ad from all electronic, digital, and print platforms within three days, news agencies reported on November 11.<\/p>\n

The interim order, delivered by Justice Tejas Karia, came in response to a petition filed by Dabur India Limited<\/a>, which claimed the Patanjali<\/a> advertisement disparaged competing brands. The 25-second commercial, titled \u201c51 herbs. 1 truth. Patanjali Chyawanprash!\u201d, featured a woman offering chyawanprash to her child while saying \u201cChalo dhoka khao\u201d (let\u2019s eat deception). The sequence was followed by yoga guru Ramdev asserting that \u201cmost people are fooled in the name of chyawanprash.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the court, the advertisement\u2019s message implied that only Patanjali\u2019s product was genuine, while all others were deceptive \u2014 an assertion it deemed \u201cincorrect and disparaging.\u201d \u201cAnybody who manufactures an ayurvedic product following the statute and the scriptures as listed in the law cannot be denigrated as deceptive,\u201d the court said, adding that such a message undermined the credibility of an entire category of ayurvedic formulations<\/a> recognised under Indian law.
Justice Karia noted that for an average viewer, an endorsement by Ramdev \u2014 a figure widely regarded as an authority on yoga and traditional medicine \u2014 carries significant influence. \u201cSuch a statement would naturally lead viewers to accept it as true and disregard other brands of chyawanprash,\u201d the court observed in its 37-page order issued on November 6.<\/p>\n

The bench found that both the tone and intent of the advertisement were aimed at disparaging rival products. Though the ad did not name Dabur<\/a> directly, the court said it effectively maligned all competing chyawanprash brands, particularly affecting Dabur, the market leader in the segment. The court held that Dabur had made out a prima facie case for an injunction, and that allowing the ad to continue would cause \u201cirreparable harm\u201d to its reputation and market standing.<\/p>\n

\"ETLive Events
Patanjali argued that the advertisement merely highlighted its own product and that the phrase \u201cdhoka\u201d was a creative expression, protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to free speech. However, the court rejected this defence, stating that the commercial went beyond the permissible limits of \u201cpuffery.\u201d It emphasised that while advertisers may extol their products, they cannot disparage an entire class of competitors or mislead consumers in doing so.\u201cA false advertisement campaign would cause irreparable loss to the plaintiff,\u201d the court held. \u201cStopping broadcast of an advertisement referring to competitors\u2019 products as \u2018deceptive\u2019 may not have any material effect on the defendants, who are free to promote their product without disparaging others.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the first instance of judicial intervention against Patanjali\u2019s advertising claims. In July, the Delhi High Court had ordered the company to remove lines from another chyawanprash advertisement<\/a> that implied rival products were inferior. That order, initially passed by a single judge, was later upheld by a division bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Delhi High Court has debarred Patanjali Ayurved from using (in broadcasting, publications and elsewhere) an advertisement that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[99611,84718,99610,95434,98069,55217,22270,18,135,19,17,462,53979,55216,99612],"class_list":{"0":"post-174888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-ayurvedic-formulations","9":"tag-baba-ramdev","10":"tag-chyawanprash-advertisement","11":"tag-dabur","12":"tag-dabur-india","13":"tag-dabur-india-limited","14":"tag-delhi-high-court","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-medication","20":"tag-patanjali","21":"tag-patanjali-ayurved","22":"tag-patanjali-ayurved-limited"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115530970332290681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}