Dr. K. V. Babu was scrolling through his Twitter feed one morning in March last year when an advert for eye drops caught his attention. Tweeted from the official handle of Patanjali Ayurved Limited, one of India’s largest manufacturers of Ayurvedic medicine, the advert claimed that the drops were “helpful in treating glaucoma or cataract, double vision, color vision, retinitis pigmentosa and night blindness.”

Dr. Babu, an ophthalmologist by training, was horrified. “How can they treat double vision with some drops!!” he exclaimed incredulously on Twitter. Retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, has no known cure, and cataracts cannot be treated without surgery, he told me over the phone from his home in Kannur, in the south Indian state of Kerala.

“There are no clear cut studies to substantiate that advertisement,” he said, expressing concern that patients might opt for the eye drops instead of clinically proven treatments or surgeries. “People will be denied proper treatment, which will lead to blindness.”

After spotting several similar adverts from Patanjali claiming that their Ayurvedic medicines could cure, among other things, diabetes, blood pressure issues and goiter, Dr. Babu filed a legal complaint. Last month, the Central Consumer Protection Authority issued a notice to the company for misleading advertising.