The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its decision on Dabur India’s plea seeking an interim injunction against Patanjali Ayurved’s latest advertisement, which allegedly has portrayed all other Chyawanprash products as “dhoka”.
During the hearing, a single-judge Bench of Justice Tejas Karia questioned Patanjali on how it could brand every other Chyawanprash in the market as fraud while projecting its own formulation as the sole “truth”.
“You can say others are inferior. But you cannot call them ‘dhoka’. How can you call all other chyawanprash ‘dhoka’? You can say they are inferior, but you can’t call them fraud. Is there no other word available in the dictionary which can be used other than ‘dhoka’,” Justice Karia remarked.
Dabur, which holds over 60 per cent of the Chyawanprash market, has approached the Delhi High Court accusing Patanjali of generic disparagement, defamation and unfair competition.
Its plaint referred to the widely circulated 25-second commercial where a mother is shown feeding her child Chyawanprash with the line “chalo dhoka khao”, followed by Baba Ramdev declaring that “adhikansh log Chyawanprash ke naam par dhoka kha rahe hain”.
Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, appearing for Dabur, argued that the phrasing implied that “most of the people are consuming fraud in the name of Chyawanprash”, despite every licensed manufacturer being bound to follow statutory Ayurveda formulations.
“Calling an entire class of goods dhoka is, per se, disparaging. Coming from a self-proclaimed yoga guru, it becomes even more serious because people associate that with some degree of truthfulness,” Sethi submitted, adding that the advertisement had garnered over nine crore views in just five days.
On the other hand, Patanjali’s counsel, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, defending the commercial, said: “Dhoka is a manifestation of ordinary. All I am saying is all other Chyawanprash are inferior in comparison to mine, which I am entitled to say.”
At this, Justice Karia remarked: “Ordinary or inferior is one thing. You can say inferior, but you cannot call them a fraud. You can say 51 jadibuti, but why call the products dhoka? Is it not a comparison?”
After hearing the arguments at length, the Delhi High Court reserved its order on Dabur’s interim injunction plea.
The latest controversy comes months after Patanjali founder Baba Ramdev drew backlash for a series of videos in which he purportedly linked Hamdard’s Rooh Afza with “Sharbat Jihad”, prompting the Delhi High Court to term his speech prima facie contemptuous. In that matter too, Ramdev was asked to take down the videos after the Delhi HC termed them “shocking to the conscience”.
