Tobacco products must carry 85% pictorial warning: SC

The Supreme Court has stayed the Karnataka High Court order which had struck down the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014 for being unconstitutional.

The petitioner had challenged the Karnataka High Court order directing the reduction of the size of the pictorial warning on tobacco products from 85 percent to 40 percent.

“Considering the rivalized submission advanced at the Bar and keeping in view the objects and reasons of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 and the measures taken by the State, we think it appropriate to direct stay of operation of the judgment and order passed by the High Court of Karnataka,” Supreme Court in the judgment said.

The court further said that, “Though a very structural submission has been advanced by the learned counsel for the respondents that it will affect their business, we have remained unimpressed by the said proponent as we are inclined to think that health of a citizen has primacy and he or she should be aware of that which can affect or deteriorate the condition of health. We may hasten to add that deterioration may be a milder word and, therefore, in all possibility the expression destruction of health is apposite.”

As per the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014, it was compulsory to print specified health warnings covering 85 percent of the display area of the tobacco products.

The matter is slated to be heard on March 12, 2018.