NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday upheld a Delhi government notification prohibiting the manufacture, storage, distribution, or sale of scented/flavoured tobacco, pan masala, gutka and similar products in the national capital.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Yashwant Varma set aside a single judge bench’s order issued on September 27 last year which had quashed the various government notifications, stopping the manufacture, storage, and sale of smokeless tobacco in the interest of public health.
“We find ourselves unable to appreciate the aforesaid submission since once it was found and conceded that both categories of tobacco constituted substances that had a direct impact on public health, the impugned notifications clearly did not warrant being quashed. We bear in mind the well-settled principle that a prerogative writ would not issue to perpetuate an illegality or cause serious prejudice to the larger public interest. The acceptance of the submission addressed in this regard would amount to the Court sanctioning the distribution and sale of smokeless tobacco in addition to smoking tobacco,” the court asserted.
The court said that there “existed no justification” for the quashing of the notifications and dismissed the objections raised by entities in the tobacco business against the prohibitory notifications issued from 2015 to 2021.
“It becomes necessary to observe that the writ petitioners (manufacturers of tobacco-related products, etc) did not dispute that both cigarettes, as well as smokeless tobacco, have a direct and pernicious impact on public health...once it was found and conceded that both categories of tobacco constituted substances which had a direct impact on public health, the impugned notifications clearly did not warrant being quashed,” observed the court.
‘No justification for quashing notifications’
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Yashwant Varma set aside the single bench’s order which quashed the various government notifications, stopping the storage, and sale of smokeless tobacco in the interest of public health. The court said that there “existed no justification” for the quashing of the notifications and dismissed the objections raised by entities in the tobacco business against the prohibitory notifications.