THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Drug Control Department has secured government approval to proceed with its 29 lawsuits against the Baba Ramdev-promoted Divya Pharmacy, resisting pressure to withdraw the cases and hand them over to the police.
According to records obtained by TNIE, Drug Controller K Sujith Kumar directed enforcement officers to go ahead with the litigation after briefing the courts on their importance. Acting on legal advice from the Additional Director General of Prosecutions, Kumar instructed officers to transfer only the cases filed after a recent Supreme Court verdict in 2025 to the police.
Kerala’s regulatory body stands out as the only state regulator in the country to actively challenge the pharmaceutical major’s controversial marketing strategies. Health activists noted Kerala was the first to take the company to court, contrasting it with Uttarakhand, where similar cases were allegedly diluted.
The ongoing legal crackdown in Kerala spans several jurisdictions, with cases actively running in Kozhikode (7 cases), Ernakulam (6 cases), Thrissur (5 cases), Kollam (5 cases), Thiruvananthapuram (4 cases), and Kannur (2 cases).
The sweeping litigation was originally triggered by a series of formal complaints lodged by Kannur-based health activist Dr Babu K V in 2023. The department’s subsequent investigation revealed that Patanjali’s Divya Pharmacy had repeatedly advertised pharmaceutical products as definitive cures for ailments explicitly barred from public promotion.
Consequently, the cases were registered under Section 3(d) of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, a stringent federal law that strictly prohibits the advertisement of remedies for 54 chronic diseases listed in its schedule. By initiating these legal proceedings, Kerala’s drug control department became the first licensing authority in India to successfully bring Patanjali Ayurved to court over deceptive marketing claims.