Patanjali to pay fine of Rs 11 lakh within a month for misbranding, misleading ads

A district court slapped Patanjali with a fine of Rs 11 lakh for misleading advertisements, misbranding and misrepresentation of its products.

Haridwar's additional district magistrate Lalit Narain Mishra stated Patanjali is guilty of releasing misleading advertisements by selling certain products with its labels although they were being manufactured by some other firm.

Patanjali was fined under Section 52 (misbranding) and Section 53 (misleading advertisement) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 as well as Section 23.1 (5) of Food Safety and Standard (Packaging and Labelling Regulations, 2011) Act.

Patanjali has to pay the fine within a month and the court also told the district food safety department to take appropriate action if there is no improvement in the products in future.

A case was filed against Patanjali in November 2012 after samples of products, including honey, salt, mustard oil, jam and besan (gram flour) picked up for sampling on August 16, 2012, allegedly failed quality tests.

The tests were conducted at Uttarakhand's only FSSAI-certified drugs and food testing lab located at Rudrapur. The case had been ongoing ever since. The order regarding the fine imposed on the company was given by the court on December 1, but became public a day ago.