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Kerala HC rejects PIL seeking stay on Arundhati Roy’s book cover
The Kerala High Court dismissed a PIL against Arundhati Roy's book cover, stating it complied with laws and criticized the petitioner's motives.
The Kerala high court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the cover of Arundhati Roy’s book titled “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” which shows the author smoking a beedi.
The PIL had argued that the cover violated the law by not carrying a statutory health warning. However, a division bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji noted that the publisher had already included a disclaimer on the back cover.
The court added that any alleged breach of law must be decided according to “statutory provisions and not the petitioner’s personal or moral perceptions.”
It also noted that Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (COTPA) Act, 2003, and the 2004 COTPA Rules, which prohibit all direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco products, do not explicitly require statutory warnings on book covers.
The court took note of the Union Government’s submission that the 2003 Act provides a mechanism, through an expert Steering Committee, to determine any contraventions and impose legal consequences if necessary. Matters such as the present one, it said, should therefore be decided by the Steering Committee rather than the high court, after hearing all concerned parties.
Questioning the petitioner’s motive, the court said the case appeared to have been filed more for publicity than in public interest.
“The petitioner has not taken even a minimal effort to ascertain the true facts or the correct legal position before invoking the jurisdiction of this court. The petitioner is not the sole guardian of the Act of 2003, as he seeks to portray,” the court said.
It reiterated that PILs must not be misused for self-publicity or personal attacks.
“The petitioner, despite making him aware, has refused to take up the issue before the competent expert statutory authority, filed the petition without examining the relevant legal position, and without verifying the necessary material, including the presence of a disclaimer on the Book, has sought to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of this court under the guise of public interest. In light of these circumstances, keeping in mind the caution that courts must ensure that public interest litigation is not misused as a vehicle for self publicity or for engaging in personal slander, the writ petition is dismissed,” the court said.
The PIL, which was filed last month, had urged the court to stop the sale and circulation of the book without the legally mandated health warnings displayed on all tobacco product packages in India under COTPA, which include warnings that smoking “kills” and “causes cancer.”
Publisher Penguin Random House India had defended the cover, arguing that the back cover carried a disclaimer stating that the photographic depiction of the author smoking a beedi was only “for representation purposes” and that the company did not endorse the use of tobacco.
