Activists see anti-tobacco efforts go up in smoke

High Court judgment comes as a big relief for retailers, distributors and importers of cigarettes, tobacco products

BENGALURU: City-based oncologist Dr Vishal Rao said the High Court order striking down the Rules 2014 that specifies 85 per cent pictorial warning, is a massive setback to tobacco control in India. “With this order, the court is saying: promote more, prevent less.” From a cancer specialist’s point of view this is extremely disappointing,” said Dr Rao, who is a surgical oncologist and member of the High Power Committee on Tobacco Control, Government of Karnataka. K V Dhananjay, advocate, representing Cancer Patients’ Association in the Karnataka High Court, said they are getting full details of the court order.

He expressed displeasure over the HC order. S J Chander, Convener, Tobacco Free Karnataka, and an antitobacco activist for 17 years, said: “This is sad. This is a lives versus livelihoods debate. This is a political decision. Ninety nine per cent of people who smoke don’t know what the carcinogens can do. In the absence of such awareness the pictorial warnings were essential. Now that is gone, we are back to where we started. This is a regressive step.” However, Friday’s judgment of Karnataka High Court came as a big relief to distributors, retailers and importers of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Apart from reduction in pictorial and textual warning on the pack, the new rule had also specified that the warnings on the packs had to be changed every 12 months with new images.

One of the rule of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014, said the health warning on tobacco product package shall be rotated every 24 months from the date of commencement of the rules. During the rotation period, there shall be two images of specified health warning for both smoking and smokeless form of tobacco products and each of the images of the health warning shall appear consecutively on the package with an interregnum period of twelve months. At the end of each 12 months of the rotation period, the Central Government may allow the distributors, retailers and importers of cigarettes and other tobacco products a grace period, not exceeding two months to clear the old stock of package of tobacco products bearing the warning specified for the expired period of twelve months of the rotation period.

BURNING ISSUE

The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules of 2008 stipulated that pictorial warnings should be 40% of cigarette pack
Amended rules of 2014 stipulated that 85% of the principal display area of the package (60% pictorial and 25% textual) should have health warning
New Delhi-based Tobacco Institute of India and manufacturers of tobacco products challenged the rules stating that will affect business
In May 2016, Supreme Court transferred all petitions filed by tobacco companies to the Karnataka High Court

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