CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has rejected a writ plea for a directive to the Greater Chennai Corporation to grant licence to a restaurant on East Coast Road at Neelangarai to use hookah.
Justice S Vaidyanathan passed the order while dismissing a writ petition from Drizzle Restaurant praying for a directive to the Corporation Commissioner to consider its representation dated April 29, 2013 and consequently grant hookah licence.
The judge said it is a well-known fact that similar to cigarettes, hookah smoking contained the addictive drug nicotine and it is at least as toxic as cigarette smoking. While many hookah smokers may consider this practice less harmful than smoking cigarettes, hookah smoking carries many of the same health risks as cigarettes.
Hookahs are water pipes that are used to smoke specially made tobacco that is usually flavoured. The volume of smoke inhaled during a typical hookah session is about 90,000 millilitres, compared with 500 to 600 millilitres inhaled when smoking a cigarette. Doctors say that passive smokers are more vulnerable to cancer.
“In view of the above, as hookah is proved to be more harmful than cigarettes and that it is not permitted in Chennai Corporation limits and not included in the Schedule of Trade Licence, as stated in the rejection order of the corporation, this court is not inclined to grant any relief to the petitioner, much less the relief sought in this writ petition,” the judge said and dismissed it.