NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday admitted for hearing a PIL (public interest litigation) seeking a complete ban on production of cigarettes and other tobacco products across the country and issued notices to the Centre and the State governments for their response.
All the same, the Bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha told petitioner filmmaker Sunil Rajpal that the issue is “for the law makers to decide.” Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman were the other two judges on the Bench.
Rajpal’s lawyer told the court that the money spent on the tobacco-related ailments runs into over Rs 30,000 crore per annum which flies in the face of revenue earning arguments of the government for not banning the tobacco industry. He reminded the court about its 2001 order prohibiting smoking in public places in view of the harm it causes even to the non-smokers due to passive smoking and a WHO report that smoking kills more than one million lives every year.
Parliament did enact The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act in 2003 but it proved to be ineffective as it was toothless, the petition said, pointing out that there is a lack of implementation resulting in violation of laws with impunity.
The only unsuspected victims of these violation of laws are innocent people especially impressionable minds of children who easily get carried away seeing people smoking and get into the habit while initially imitating others, the petition added.
What the petition says…
Money spent on the tobacco-related ailments runs into over Rs 30,000 crore per annum
Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act ineffective, toothless; lack of implementation resulting in violation of laws
Unsuspected victims are children who easily get carried away seeing people smoking and get into the habit while initially imitating others
Reminds apex court of WHO report that smoking kills more than one million lives every year
