IMA President faces SC over remarks against Apex Court

New Delhi: Refusing to accept his unconditional apology, the Supreme Court on Tuesday posed some tough question to Indian Medical Association (IMA) president R V Asokan, over his “damaging” statements against the apex court in an interview to PTI where he answered queries about Patanjali Ayurved Ltd’s misleading advertisements case.

“You cannot sit on a couch giving an interview to the press and lampooning the court,” a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah told Asokan, while making it clear that at this stage, the top court will not accept his affidavit tendering apology. “We are the first one to uphold the freedom of speech, the right of free speech and right of thought but there are time when there has to be a self-restraint,” Justice Kohli observed, adding, “We did not see it in your interview, that is the point.” Asokan, who was present in the court, offered an unconditional apology to the bench and prayed for clemency.

“Your conduct is not something which we can condone so easily,” the bench told him and asked him why he made the statements in a pending matter where the IMA is the petitioner. The bench said that with 45 years of experience in the profession and his role as the IMA president, he was expected to have more sense of responsibility while giving the interview.

Terming his statements “very unfortunate,” the bench said though he has unconditionally apologised, the other part was whether the court will accept such an apology after the “kind of damaging statements” he had made. It said the IMA was the one which dragged Patanjali Ayurved Ltd to the court claiming they were taking the whole world for a ride, they were misrepresenting and denigrating

the allopathy.