Apex Court bars orders cancelling larger tobacco health warnings

New Delhi, January 9: Big pictures warning about the risk of health while smoking cigarettes will be continued says the Supreme Court while keeping aside the orders cancelling larger tobacco health warnings.

The Supreme Court said on Monday that cigarette and other tobacco product manufacturers must continue to display pictorial and statutory health warnings on 85% of the product pack area, while staying a Karnataka high court judgment reducing it to 40%.

“Health of a citizen has primacy and he or she should be aware of that which can affect or deteriorate the condition of health,” the Supreme Court said in its 13-page order.

“Deterioration may be a milder word and, therefore, in all possibility the expression ‘destruction of health’ is opposite.”

The court’s decision comes as a relief for health advocates and federal health ministry who say bigger health warnings deter tobacco consumption. More than 900,000 people die each year in India due to tobacco-related illnesses, the government estimates.

India’s tobacco packaging rules are among the world’s most stringent. A government survey last year found that 62 percent of cigarette smokers thought of quitting because of such warning labels on the packets.

The case will next be heard on March 12.