State may amend laws to ban hookah bars in Kolkata: Mayor Hakim

KOLKATA: City mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday said the state may amend laws to enforce the ban on hookah parlours in Kolkata and nearby areas.
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday did not interfere with the single-bench order scrapping the KMC's ban on hookah bars. KMC had appealed against the order. A division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, however, allowed KMC to file its legal arguments and will hear the case after six weeks.
Hakim said he believed that a restriction on such bars would benefit the society. "As a mayor and a cabinet minister, I feel I have a moral responsibility to save youths from getting addicted to hookah bars. If need be, we may amend rules giving the civic body the required legal authority to put a ban on such bars," he said.
In January, the HC scrapped the ban on hookah bars saying that in the absence of a ban on the legal sale of tobacco, nicotine and herbal products in bars and restaurants, the Kolkata and Bidhannagar municipal corporations cannot stop sale of hookah. Justice Rajasekhar Mantha also ruled that a separate trade licence for hookah bars was also not legally tenable.