Context: Supreme Court has come down heavily on Patanjali for promoting misleading advertisements about its Covid-19 medicine i.e. ‘Coronil’, which is a violation of the provisions of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954.
About Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954:
- 'Advertisement' includes any notice, circular, label, wrapper or other document, and any announcement made orally or by any means of producing or transmitting light, sound or smoke.
- 'drug' includes—
- i)a medicine for the internal or external use of human beings or animals.
- ii)any substance intended to be used for or in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in human beings or animals.
- iii)any article, other than food, intended to affect or influence in any way the structure or any organic function of the body of human beings or animals.
- 'Magic remedy' includes a talisman, mantra, kavacha and any other charm of any kind which is alleged to possess miraculous powers for or in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of any disease in human beings or animals or for affecting or influencing in any way the structure or any organic function of the body of human beings or animals.
- Prohibition of advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and disorders: No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any drug which suggest or are calculated to lead to the use of that drug for—
- (a) procurement of miscarriage in women or prevention of conception in women; or
- (b) maintenance or improvement of the capacity of human beings for sexual pleasure;
- (c) correction of menstrual disorder in women.
- Prohibition of misleading advertisements relating to drugs: No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement relating to a drug if advertisement contains any matters which--
- (a) directly or indirectly gives a false impression regarding the true character of the drug; or
- (b) makes a false claim for the drug; or
- (c) is otherwise false or misleading in any material particular.
- No person carrying on or purporting to carry on the profession of administering magic remedies shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any magic remedy which directly or indirectly claims to be efficacious for any of the below purposes
- (a) procurement of miscarriage in women or prevention of conception in women; or
- (b) maintenance or improvement of the capacity of human beings for sexual pleasure;
- (c) the correction of menstrual disorder in women
- Penalty: Whoever contravenes any of the provisions of this Act 1[or the rules made thereunder] shall, on conviction, be punishable—
- (a) in the case of the first conviction, with imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.
- (b) in the case of a subsequent conviction, with imprisonment which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both an offence punishable under this Act shall be cognizable.
- Powers of entry, search, etc: Subject to the provisions of any rules made in this behalf, any Gazetted Officer authorised by State Government may, within the local limits of the area for which he is so authorised,
- (a) enter and search at all reasonable times, with such assistants, if any, as he considers necessary, any place in which he has reason to believe that an offence under this Act has been or is being committed;
- (b) seize any advertisement which he has reason to believe contravenes any of the provisions of this Act:
- Offences by Companies: If the person contravening any of the provisions of this Act is a company, every person who, at the time the offence was committed, was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of the business of the company as well as the company shall be deemed to be guilty of the contravention and shall be liable to be proceeded against, and punished accordingly.
Provided that nothing contained in this subsection shall render any such person liable to any punishment provided in this act if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence.
Power to exempt from application of Act:
If, in the opinion of the Central Government, public interest requires that the advertisement of any specified drug or class of drugs [or any specified class of advertisements relating to drugs] should be permitted, it may, direct that the provisions of sections 3,4,5 and 6 or any one of such provisions shall not apply' or shall apply subject to such conditions as may be specified in the notification to or in relation to the advertisement of any such drugs or class of drugs [or any such class of advertisements relating to drugs].
Power to make rules: Central Government makes rules for carrying out the purposes of this Act.