The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed RV Asokan, President of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), to issue apologies in major newspapers for his remarks criticising the court.
The Supreme Court bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Sandeep Mehta said that these apologies must be made by Asokan personally, not as a representative of the IMA, and that he must cover the costs himself.
“Apology needs to be tendered by you and from your own pocket, not IMA,” the top court said, as cited by Bar and Bench.
The counsel representing the IMA, PS Patwalia, informed the court that the interview in question was provided to news agency PTI.
On this, Justice Kohli said, “Besides the ones you are referring to, which other publications was it [the interview] shared with? You have to send [the apology] to all of them. You cannot just wash your hands off. No assumptions here in your favour just because you say so. Your public apology has to be… You are inviting trouble on yourself and we are not taking your apology.”
The apex court acknowledged Patwalia’s plea to defer the contempt orders issued against Asokan, providing him with a period to take necessary actions to resolve the contempt issue.
The next hearing has been scheduled for September 2024.
What is the case?
The court was hearing a case filed by the IMA against Patanjali Ayurved and its founders, Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna, for publishing misleading advertisements that undermine evidence-based medicine.
The IMA had accused Patanjali of running a smear campaign against modern medicine. Later, the IMA faced criticism from the court after its president publicly criticised the court’s directive for doctors to address unethical practices within the medical field. Asokan expressed disappointment to the media over the Supreme Court’s rebuke, stating that it had demoralised doctors.
First Published: Aug 06 2024 | 4:09 PM IST
