May initiate contempt action if states, UTs non compliant against misleading ads: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned states and union territories of contempt action if they failed to act against misleading advertisements.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan perused a note submitted by senior advocate Shadan Farasat, who is assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in the matter, and observed a number of states were non-compliant as indicated in the note.

"We make it clear that if we find non-compliance by any of the states and union territories, we may have to initiate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, against the states concerned," the bench said.

The issue pertaining to misleading advertisements had cropped up before the top court while hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association in 2022 alleging a smear campaign by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine.

The top court had highlighted the aspect of misleading advertisements being published or displayed in media contrary to the provisions of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and the rules, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the amicus said as per the affidavits filed by the states and union territories so far, virtually no prosecution under the 1954 Act was taking place.

While Section 3 of the Act deals with prohibition of advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and disorders, Section 4 relates to prohibition of misleading advertisements of drugs.

The bench referred to affidavits filed by some of the states and questioned why they hadn't acted on the basis of complaints received.

Some states, it noted, found it difficult to identify the violaters.

"We will take contempt action now," the bench said, "and we will threadbare examine the compliance made by each states." The bench said it would consider the compliance made by Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir on February 10.

And if these states wanted to file further affidavits reporting compliance, they were free to do so by February 3, it added.

The bench said compliance by states including Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab would be considered on February 24.

It said compliance regarding other states and union territories would be considered on March 17.

While hearing the matter in July last year, the apex court said the Ministry of Ayush should set up a dashboard to make available to the consumers the details about the complaints filed on misleading advertisements and the progress made on them.

In April last year, the top court asked the Centre and state licensing authorities to "activate" themselves to deal with misleading advertisements.