'Lives in his own world': Delhi HC raps Ramdev after new Rooh Afza video

Yoga practitioner and Patanjali founder Ramdev on Thursday agreed to take down ‘offending portions” of a fresh video red-flagged during a hearing by the Delhi high court in connection with his “sharbat jihad” comments after the judge said he would issue him notice for contempt of court for non-compliance with its April 22 direction.

Justice Amit Bansal recorded the fresh undertaking in his order and posted the matter for May 2 to consider Ramdev’s compliance with its April 22 order.

“Mr Nayyar (senior advocate Rajiv Nayyar who appeared for Ramdev,) submits on instruction that portions/extracts of the video which makes reference to the plaintiff shall be taken down. Offending part of the impugned video has been identified. Mr Nayyar on instructions submits that he shall take down the aforesaid portions of the video within 24 hours from all social media platforms, and any other media where it is hosted by the defendants. Let an affidavit be filed within a period of 1 week,” justice Bansal said on Thursday afternoon.

At its April 22 hearing, the bench reprimanded Ramdev for his offensive videos against Hamdard’s popular drink Rooh Afza on a suit filed by Hamdard Laboratories, ordered him to take down these videos and ordered him to give an undertaking that he won’t put out such videos or statements again.

But on Thursday, Hamdard’s counsel senior advocate Sandeep Sethi told the court that Ramdev had issued another video, that said the profits earned by Hamdard were being diverted for building madrassas, masjids and that they trusted Mughal’s Aurangzeb while Patanjali’s trust was in Lord Ram. Sethi also pointed out that Ramdev’s affidavit was silent on the undertaking ordered by the court.

Justice Bansal noted that the tone and tenor of the new video was similar to the old one.

“Para 18 was the requirement, he has not complied with that. The affidavit that you filed is prima facie contempt. He’s not in control of anyone and lives in his own world. The tone and tenor of the new video is exactly similar. You refer to Hamdard… The money goes to…. Where have you complied with Para 18? According to my seeing, of the video and the affidavit, both are non compliant,” justice Bansal said, posting the matter for further hearing later in the day while hearing a trademark infringement case filed by Hamdard’s Rooh Afza.

Sethi said Ramdev had consciously chosen to not give an undertaking in the affidavit and instead uploaded a new video to create communal divide between consumers to lead them to choose Patanjali’s products. The new video already had 90,000 views and 22,000 comments. “He does not “consciously comply with the order,” and “comes up with a new video,” the counsel said.

Nayyar, however, insisted that Ramdev had complied with the order by mentioning in his affidavit that he was a “law abiding citizen” and “respected all religion” and had the fundamental right to free speech for comparing competitor’s products. Nayyar further submitted that the subsequent video did not disparage Hamdard’s products, had already complied with the take down order and the court could not pass a gag order.