Tobacco Ban: Delhi High Court Asks FSSAI To Decide On Issue Expeditiously
The high court asked the FSSAI to consider the petition in court as a representation and decide on it expeditiously.
The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to decide on a petition seeking prohibition of Manufacture, Storage, Distribution, Sale of Tobacco as well as Tobacco Products.
A PIL was filed by president of the Bhartiya Samriddhi Kalyan Party Sheetal Dhariwal in the high court to seek a ban of various Gutka and pan masala brands for non-compliance of the Regulation 2.3.4 of the FSSAI Regulations, 2011 which prohibits the sale, manufacture, storage and distribution of any food products which contains tobacco and nicotine as ingredients.
The high court observed that the petitioners had not moved any other authority before approaching it, and disposed of the petition. However, the high court asked the FSSAI to consider the petition in court as a representation and decide on it expeditiously.
The high court directed the FSSAI to expeditiously decide the representation filed on the issue on prohibiting manufacture, storage, distribution, sale of tobacco in all States/ Union territories of India in accordance with law. However, the court did not comment on the merits of the case.
The present PIL was argued upon by Advocate Chandan Bhatia who primarily emphasised on ban on the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale of tobacco in compliance to the regulation 2.3.4 of the FSSAI Regulations, 2011 which deals with “Product not to contain any substance which may be injurious to health. It is mentioned that tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food products.”
The petitioners have contended that in the year 2019, the Bihar Government urged the Centre to ban 15 pan masala brands in which adulterants like magnesium carbonate and nicotine were found by the National Tobacco testing Laboratory (NTTL) at National Institute of Cancer Prevention. Following this, the Bihar government had banned the manufacture , storage, transportation and sale of 15 pan masala brands including Rajanigandha, Rajniwas, Supreme, Pan Parag, Bahar , Bahubali , Rajshree, Raunak , Signature, Sir Gold , Shikhar , Vimal, Kamla Pasand , Pashan and Madhu and further the samples of several pan masala brands were sent to the NTTL by the Centre the reports of which confirmed the presence of nicotine in several pan masala brands.
The petitioners have alleged that the tobacco industry is misleading the policy makers asserting that the tobacco products are not as injurious as proclaimed by the scientific community thereby initiating a flurry of litigations to deter and delay states from uniformly enforcing a ban on Gutka /Pan Masala.
"Gutka manufacturers seized the moment and registered Pan Masala with the same trademark as the Gutka Brand, and gave a separate pouch of pure tobacco (colloquially called Chhotu) with the Pan Masala. This ingenious method ensured that Gutka companies were able to bring back their product to their consumers and the ban had a partial impact," the petitioners said.
The high court in its order dated March 18, has disposed of the petition but has asked the FSSAI to consider the petition as a representation (appeal) and decide on the issue.
According to the report of NTTL, Rajnigandha, Supreme, Kamla Pasand, Rajshree, Rounak, Signature and Madhu contain 0.042%, 0.186%, 2.26%, 0.163%, 0.208%, 0.046%, 0.151% and 0.155% of nicotine, respectively.
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