HC asks Patanjali to pay ₹4 crore for breach of injunction

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday directed Patanjali Ayurved Ltd to deposit an amount of ₹4 crore within two weeks, after the company promoted by Baba Ramdev breached an August 2023 order, restraining it from selling a camphor product.

A single judge bench of justice RI Chagla issued the order on a contempt petition filed by Mangalam Organics Ltd, claiming that Patanjali Ayurved had committed breach of interim orders, restraining it from selling the camphor product.

The court said there was deliberated and willful breach of the court orders by Patanjali Ayurved and imposed ₹4 crore on the company to deposit. This is in addition to an amount of ₹50 lakh, which the court had earlier ordered the Haridwar-based company to deposit with the Prothonotary and Senior Master of the high court.

Acting on an intellectual property rights suit filed by Mangalam Organics Ltd, the court had passed an interim order on August 30, 2023, restraining Patanjali Ayurved from selling the camphor product. Earlier this year, Mangalam Organics filed a plea, pointing out that Patanjali Ayurved was manufacturing as well as selling the camphor product and the product was available for sale at Patanjali Mega Store in Virar.

Mangalam Organics also pointed out that sale of the impugned Camphor product was borne out from the invoices from March 10, 2024, to April 28, 2024, and that the products showed date of manufacturing of the product as March 2024.

On June 21, when the pleas came up for hearing, a representative of Patanjali Ayurved filed an affidavit, tendering unconditional apology “with folded hands” and claimed that the sale of the camphor product at the mega store in Virar was “inadvertent and un-intentional.” It added that the company had immediately intimated the mega store to stop the sale of the Patanjali Camphor Cone.

However, Mangalam Organics, the world’s largest Camphor manufacturer, stated that the claim of inadvertent sale was false and misleading, and Patanjali Ayurved was in willful breach of the injunction order.

Later, when the matter came up for hearing before justice Chagla, the company admitted on affidavit that it has been supplying the camphor product even after the injunction order passed by the high court on August 30, 2023, and sold ₹49.57 lakh worth of the product after the injunction order. It added that a stock worth ₹25.94 lakh was still lying with their wholesalers, distributors and authorised stores.

The court noted that the sale of the product was continued not only after the injunction order, but even after Patanjali Ayurved filed an affidavit stating that the sale was inadvertent and had tendered an unconditional apology.