The Delhi High Court on Thursday questioned Patanjali Ayurved for using the word “dhoka”—meaning fraud or deception—in its latest chyawanprash advertisement, asking how the company could describe rival products in such a manner.
Justice Tejas Karia, hearing a plea filed by Dabur India seeking an interim injunction against Patanjali’s “disparaging” commercial, observed that while comparative advertising is permitted, denigrating other products is not. “You can claim that you are the best, but you cannot call others ‘dhoka’, which in English means fraud and deception,” the judge remarked orally. The court reserved its order.
Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, appearing for Dabur India, argued that Patanjali’s 25-second advertisement—titled “51 Herbs. 1 Truth. Patanjali Chyawanprash!”—portrays all other chyawanprash products as deceptive. In the ad, a woman is seen telling her child “Chalo dhoka khao” before yoga guru Ramdev appears, saying “Adhikansh log Chyawanprash ke naam par dhoka kha rahe hain.”
Sethi said such language implied that all competing chyawanprash brands, including Dabur, which holds over 60% of the market share, were fraudulent. “Chyawanprash as a class of goods is being termed as deceptive. It is being done to create panic,” he argued, adding that the ad also alluded to Dabur’s formula with the line “why settle with 40 herbs,” which mirrors Dabur’s composition.
He told the court that the remarks were not mere puffery but amounted to a targeted attack by a public figure whose words carry credibility. “Coming from a self-proclaimed yoga guru is far more serious. People associate a yoga guru with truthfulness,” he said.
Senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, representing Patanjali, countered that the word “dhoka” was used colloquially to mean “ordinary” or “ineffective.” “When I say ‘dhoka’, I mean others are sadharan (ordinary) chyawanprash. I’m saying ours is special,” he told the court. He maintained that Patanjali was not calling rival products fake or spurious, only less effective.
Justice Karia, however, asked whether calling all other products “dhoka” went beyond comparative advertising: “Ordinary or special and dhoka are different. Dhoka is a negative word—it means fraud.”
In July, another single-judge bench had restrained Patanjali from airing similar ads and ordered the deletion of lines like “Why settle for ordinary chyawanprash made with 40 herbs?” A division bench later upheld that direction, reiterating that comparative ads cannot disparage competing products.
The present plea by Dabur marks the latest round in the ongoing legal battle over Patanjali’s marketing claims, with the High Court now poised to decide whether calling other chyawanprash products “dhoka” crosses the line between advertisement and defamation.
