The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Central government and Indian Medical Association (IMA) on a plea by Yoga preacher-turned-entrepreneur Ramdev seeking the clubbing of FIRs and transfer of cases lodged against him in various states over his remarks on the efficacy of allopathy in treatment of Covid to Delhi.

A bench of Justice A S Bopanna and Justice M M Sundresh also issued a notice to Ramdev on his plea for a stay on the proceedings in multiple cases lodged against him. It has sought protection from coercive actions in FIRs lodged by the Patna and Raipur branches of the Indian Medical Associations (IMA) and transferred the FIRs to Delhi.

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Ramdev’s lawyer had earlier contended that Ramdev is a public figure and in a private event, he propounded his views that Ayurveda is better than allopathy.

The court was told that Ramdev had clarified he has nothing against doctors and he is entitled to have a view on different streams of medicines, whether Allopathy is better, Homeopathy is better or Ayurveda is better.

Earlier on August 23, 2022, the Supreme Court had pulled up Ramdev for putting in newspapers misleading advertisements by his firm Patanjali discrediting allopathy and its practising doctors during the Covid-19 pandemic and had asked the Centre to restrain him.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana (since retired), Justice Hima Kohli and Justice C T Ravikumar had said, “Why is Baba Ramdev accusing allopathy doctors? He popularised Yoga. That is good. But he should not criticise other systems of medicine.”

Making no secret of its anguish, Chief Justice Ramana (since retired) had slammed Ramdev for deriding other medicine systems and accusing the doctors as if they were “killers” and asking “what is the guarantee that Ayurveda he propagates will cure all diseases?”

The top court had then asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, to take instructions on the misleading advertisements by Patanjali. How can Ramdev and Patanjali allege through advertisements in the media that the allopathic doctors are killers, the court asked.

“It is better you restrain him from abusing other systems of medicine”, CJI Ramana had told Solicitor General Mehta.

While issuing notice, the court had sought the Centre’s response on the IMA’s allegation of a smear campaign against the Covid-19 vaccination drive and modern medicine.

Ramdev has been booked under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and other provisions of Disaster Management Act, 2005.

In a video, Ramdev in 2021 was allegedly heard saying “allopathy is a stupid science and medicines such as Remdesivir, Fabiflu, and other drugs approved by the Drugs Controller General of India have failed to treat Covid-19 patients.”

Raipur police had registered an FIR following a complaint by the Raipur’ unit of the IMA unit against Ramdev for allegedly spreading “false” information about the medicines being used by the medical fraternity for the treatment of Covid-19.