Smoking ban: Govt rushes to SC

Sensing a spate of litigation in high courts challenging its decision to completely ban smoking in public places from October 2, the Centre on Friday rushed to the Supreme Court seeking transfer of all such petitions from the HCs to the apex court for a uniform adjudication. The first of such apprehended litigation has already been filed in the Delhi High Court by ITC, one of the largest cigarette manufacturers, and Indian Hotels Association arguing that the notification banning smoking made no distinction between a public place and private space. Mentioning the Centre’s transfer petition before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam, two additional solicitors general, Gopal Subramaniam and Mohan Parasaran, termed the late challenges, just before the Dday, as nothing but dilatory tactics and meant to create confusion in the minds of the people. The Bench listed it for hearing on Monday. Subramaniam said the ban was in sync with the earlier apex court verdict in the Murli Deora case, where it had expressed concern over the large number of tobacco-related deaths occurring every year in the country. He said: “Ban on public smoking is sought to be enforced in the light of declarations by World Health Organisation (WHO) of which India is a member country and also a party to the declaration to bring into effect ban on smoking and other activities affecting public health.” “In fact, the Supreme Court has, by a judgment in the case Murli Deora Vs Union of India, mandated passing of appropriate legislation for a ban on smoking in public places. The 2003 law and consequent Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2006, have been brought in to force in consonance with the apex court mandate and the international conventions,” Subramaniam said. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for ITC, said that the earlier law had been implemented and “this present sudden ban has been brought in as somebody in the government wants to make a point that ‘he is anti-smoking’.” Salve said the high court was scheduled to hear the case on September 30 and the Centre had agreed to it. However, now it has rushed to the Supreme Court. The court agreed that there should be a hearing on the important issue as early as possible and fixed the Centre’s transfer petition for hearing on Monday.

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