SC to hear today plea on pictorial warnings on tobacco products

The Karnataka High Court had ruled that 85% pictorial warnings on tobacco products is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea against a Karnataka High Court order reducing the pictorial warning on cigarette packets and on packaging of other tobacco products.

moking-related deaths are still rising worldwide, with 80 percent of them expected to occur in developing country populations by 2030. (AP File)

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said it would hear the twin pleas by the Allahabad-based senior lawyer Umesh Narain and NGO Health for Millions at 3.30pm.

The court observation came after senior counsel Anand Grover appearing for the NGO and lawyer Aishwara Bhati mentioned the matter for an early hearing.

Holding as arbitrary the 2014 regulation mandating that pictorial warning on cigarette packets and the packaging of other tobacco products should cover 85 per cent of the their space, the High Court, Bhati said, had reduced it to 40 per cent.

Bhati said that 2014 Cigarette and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendments Rules came into force from April 1, 2016.