Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has held that prohibition of sale and distribution of loose cigarettes cannot be ordered by the courts as it is for the Union and State governments to take such a decision.
A Division Bench comprising Justice B.S. Patil and Justice B.V. Nagarathna made the observations in their order of December 15 while disposing of a PIL petition, filed by one Rahul Joshi of Jaipur in Rajasthan and which was transferred to the High Court of Karnataka from the Rajasthan High Court.
The PIL petition was transferred to Karnataka along with other petitions in which cigarette and tobacco products manufacturers had challenged the legality of enhancing the size of pictorial warning on the packs of cigarette and other tobacco products through the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014.
The Bench also did not thought it fit to issue a direction to the authorities to prescribe plain packaging of cigarette and other tobacco products while pointing that this too falls in the domain of the Centre and State governments to consider such a scheme in accordance with the law.
