The Delhi High Court ordered the e-commerce website Amazon to remove the listings after Rooh Afza’s Indian producer, Hamdard National Foundation, filed a lawsuit alleging that Pakistan-produced Rooh Afza was being sold in India through Amazon, according to The Indian Express.
Indians have been drinking Rooh Afza, a well-known beverage, for more than a century. The fact that its imported version was being sold on Amazon without the manufacturer’s information was shocking to the court.
On Wednesday, Justice Prathiba M. Singh ordered Amazon to remove the “listings of infringing ‘Rooh Afza’ products” within 48 hours.
Rooh Afza was first introduced by Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majeed in Delhi more than a century ago. After the partition, Hakim’s elder son relocated to India while the younger son chose Pakistan.
Currently, Hamdard National Foundation has the rights to the beverage in India, while Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) makes it in Pakistan.
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Last year, the Hamdard National Foundation discovered that some merchants were also listing Rooh Afza, and several of them received notifications as a result.
Later, it was discovered that the Rooh Afza bottles being sold in India on Amazon were really made in Pakistan, which is against the law.
