Notice to Centre, States on PIL seeking tobacco ban

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Centre, all the States and Union Territories on a public interest writ petition seeking a complete ban on the production of cigarettes and other tobacco products across the country.

A Bench of Chief Justice RM Lodha and Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman issued a notice on the petition from a film producer Sunil Rajpal.

When Counsel Aditya Agrawal told the Court that money spent on treatment of smoking-related ailments came to ₹30,000 crore per annum but the Government is not keen on the ban fearing revenue loss, the CJI said, “It is for the lawmakers to decide.” The petitioner called for smoking to be banned after considering the ill effects of smoking (active and passive) so that human life could be saved.

600,000 deaths He said, “We are lacking the will to curb this menace from the society and till date, reports are coming from various sources that by 2020, the death toll due to smoking in India will be higher than any other disease. Each year, exposure to second-hand smoking kills 600,000 people.”

He said it was considered necessary to enact a comprehensive law on tobacco in the public interest and to protect the public health.

He wanted a direction for prohibition of the consumption of cigarettes and other tobacco products with a view to achieving improvement of public health.

He also wanted a direction to prohibit advertisements of tobacco products.