Pictorial warnings on cigarette: K'taka HC scraps 2014 amendment

The Karnataka High Court on Friday scraped 2014 amendment stating that both sides of a cigarette packet should have 85 percent statutory warning on the packet.

Earlier in 2016, the Supreme Court had reminded tobacco makers of their duty to society and to carry pictorial warnings spread over 85 percent of both sides of their packaging as mandated under the government's amended 2014 rules, staying a Karnataka High Court order that had prevented implementation of these rules.

The earlier 2008 rules required pictorial warnings on just 40 percent of the packaging on one side.

The industry further said that the images as well as the textual warnings prescribed are false and misleading. It has said there is no evidence to prove that the images on the pictorial health warnings are of tobacco-related diseases or tobacco consumers.

The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (packing and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014, made under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution), Act of 2003, were notified to take effect from April 1, 2016.

The industry association claimed that the new warnings would prevent tobacco makers from appropriately displaying their trademarks and would cause the market to be flooded with counterfeit products.