Now, raid on eateries serving hookahs

Delhi police today told the Delhi High Court that it would soon raid restaurants in the Capital which had been illegally doubling up as hookah "bars" when they only had licences to function as eating joints.

Delhi police on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it would soon raid restaurants in the Capital which had been illegally doubling up as hookah "bars" when they only had licences to function as eating joints.

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"We will raid restaurants illegally allowing hookah smoking", Najmi Waziri, the counsel for the Delhi police, told the court.

Hearing a public interest litigation on the issue, the court had on August 1 slammed the now-trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the New Delhi Municipal Council for not forcing restaurants, mostly in GK-I, GK-II, South Extension, Connaught Place, Defence Colony and New Friends Colony, into following the statutory provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (prohibition of supply and distribution) Act (COPTA), 2003, while issuing licenses.

"Why don't you incorporate the clause while giving the licence?" the court asked the lawyers for the civic agencies while hearing a PIL filed by NGO World Lung Foundation-South Asia.

The NGO's president GR Khatri told the court that many restaurants functioned as hookah bars and law enforcement authorities remained mute spectators.

He said civic agencies were empowered to impose fines on these hotels under Rule 4 of the Smoke Free Rules of 2008, according to which the principal activity as eating joints is not carried out in consonance with the provisions of COPTA.