Health Ministry welcomes SC judgement on cigarette, tobacco ads

The Health Ministry on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court judgement on advertising of tobacco products and said it will pave the way for effective implementation of its rules regulating such advertisements at points of sale. "It is a very favourable judgement. We have lakhs and lakhs of hawkers, retailers, whole sellers and vendors who promote tobacco. With this judgement, commercial promotion of cigarettes will go away," Shakuntala Gamlin, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, said.

"State governments will now be informed about the judgement and they will have to enforce it through the police authorities and enforcement agencies designated for the same," she said. The Supreme Court quashed the interim order of Bombay High Court staying Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Rules, 2004, also known as Point of Sale rules, for regulating advertisements at shops selling tobacco products.

The court also slammed the Centre for "conniving" with the tobacco lobby when people are daily dying of cancer. The Health Ministry had issued a notification regulating the point of sale advertisements in 2005 under the COTPA Act, 2003, in which it mentions that at point of sale, the size of the board used for advertisement of cigarettes and any other tobacco products should not exceed 60 cms by 45 cms.

Each such board should contain warnings and specifications of the Ministry like 'Tobacco causes cancer' or 'tobacco kills' on the top edge in a prominent manner measuring 20 cms by 15 cms and the board should not display brands and not be back-lit or illuminated in any manner. Gamlin said the ministry was trying to address the issue of reduction of smoking through taxation, statutory health warning, film notifications and deglamourising film personalities as young minds get influenced.

She said the Ministry was now on the lookout for advertisements of any kind (of tobacco products) and that at point of sale, there should not be any brand-pushing.