The court ruled that the provisions dealing with the two issues were beyond the competency of the powers conferred by the Anti-Smoking Act and against the mandate of Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution.
Kasturi & Sons, publishers of the The Hindu and other publications, and film director Mahesh Bhatt had issued separate petitions on the issue. Bhatt had challenged Rule 4 (Prohibition of Advertisements of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products) of The Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products Act 2003. He submitted that the rule would result in the curtailment of freedom of expression and the right to communicate and inform the public, and it was beyond the powers conferred under the act.
Kasturi & Sons had challenged a show-cause notice issued for carrying a photograph in The Hindu of a driver in a Formula One race where there was a cigarette company logo on a driver’s jacket which was construed to be a commercial advertisement.
Quashing the notice, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, “It was mere a reproduction of a news item in a Formula One race, and Rule 4 (8) of the Act does not prevent the press from publishing news items and dissemination of ideas.”
As for the depiction of smoking scenes in movies, the court observed that cinema reflects social realities, and that directors should therefore not be inhibited in depicting such scenes. (pi)