The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation petition seeking directions to allow supply of the Krishnapatnam medicine, a herbal concoction made by self-styled Ayurvedic practitioner Bonige Anandaiah in Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, which claimed to have “miraculously" cured Covid-19.
The petition was filed by an entrepreneur, who is also a law student, sought permission to re-start the supply of the Krishnapatnam medicine.
The Andhra Pradesh government, which initially evinced interest in distributing the medicine, later withdrew the plan on the ground that there is no scientific evidence for its efficacy.
The Supreme Court bench headed by chief justice N V Ramana, while dismissing the petition, asked the petitioner not to waste the time of the court and if he wanted, he could go to the high court.
As per the petition, the herbal concoction showed miraculous results to numerous patients, including critical patients whose blood oxygen levels were lesser than 90.
The petitioner submitted that about 40,000 people are currently staying put in Nellore for the supply of the herbal medicine to be restarted so that they can avail the cure.
However, the district administration authorities stated that Bonigi Anandaiah is not a qualified practitioner and there is no scientific evidence of the efficacy of concoction coupled with no permissions through pre-established procedure.
The petition stated that though Indian Council of Medical Research is yet to examine the concoction, Ministry of Ayush has "not found" anything harmful in the medicines.
The petition prayed to quash the order passed by the district management and to provide all possible moral, logistical and financial support to Bonigi Anandaiah to scale up the production and distribution of the herbal concoctions.
