NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed Madras HC’s order of setting aside a notification issued by Food Safety Commissioner on May 23, 2018 that prohibited the sale, manufacture and transport of gutka and other tobacco-based products.
Although the HC’s ruling was stayed by the bench comprising of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna, the court granted manufacturers an opportunity to approach the appropriate forum seeking redressal in case they had a case that their activities were not covered by the notification issued by the State.
Justice Joseph, the presiding judge of the bench during the hearing, disagreed with one of the contentions, of tobacco not being consumed independently. “Do not say that nobody consumes tobacco. I have lived with someone for a good part of my life who consumed it everyday. They spit it out, that is a different thing,” the judge said.
The order was passed in the plea filed by Tamil Nadu government challenging HC’s January 20, 2023 order wherein the HC had ruled that allowing the Food Safety Commissioner to impose a permanent ban on tobacco products by issuing successive notifications year after year would amount to conferring a power that was not provided in the law.
Holding that tobacco, with or without additives, is a food product, the high court had held that notifications banning gutka and pan masala in Tamil Nadu issued by the Commissioner of Food Safety were not within his powers and quashed the same.
It was the State’s case that orders of the Food Safety Commissioner banning the sale, storage, manufacture, etc. of gutka and other tobacco products were backed by Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011.
Today, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the State told the court that the Food Commissioner’s orders were backed by the 2011 regulations. He also said, “We’re protecting people from disastrous consequences of having food articles that result in cancer. It is the government’s duty to protect people from such dangers.”
Senior advocate AM Singhvi appearing for one of the manufacturers, said that, the acts of Tamil Nadu government were not permissible under law. It was also his contention that tobacco/chewing tobacco was admittedly not food.