New Delhi: In a major setback to India’s Rs 73,000-crore tobacco industry, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered cigarette manufacturers to immediately follow the new federal rules requiring bigger health warnings on cigarette packs.
A cigarette manufacturing company had earlier challenged the government’s order to implement the new tobacco-control rules from April 1. The government’s order required health warnings to cover 85 per cent of a cigarette pack’s surface, which was earlier only 20 per cent.
At the same time, the Supreme Court transferred all the petitions against the government’s order to a Karnataka court, and has also ordered the court to decide on the matter within six weeks.
The Supreme Court strictly ordered cigarette manufacturers to comply with the government's new health-warning rules.
“All petitions pending in various high courts stand transferred to the Karnataka High Court,” said Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose.
“It is expected that all petitioners will comply with the 2014 amendment rule,” he further added.
Last month, various Indian cigarette manufacturing companies, including ITC Ltd and Godfrey Philips, stood against the new directives issued by the government on April 1 and briefly shut down production.
They refused to abide by the new rules and said that the government’s stringent policy will boost cigarette smuggling.
On April 1, the Tobacco Institute of India warned the government of shutting down the production which could lead to estimated losses of 3.5 billion rupees per day. However, various cigarette and beedi manufacturing companies have resumed production since then.
(With agencies)
