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SC issues notices to cigarette companies

The Supreme Court today issued notices to four leading tobacco companies on a public-interest petition seeking permanent display of the statutory warning against smoking in their advertisements in the media and on display boards.

The notices, issued by a division bench comprising Justice Sujata V Manohar and Justice R P Sethi, were limited to the alleged violation of the statutory obligation on the part of cigarette advertisers to display the warning permanently.

The companies to whom the notices were issued are: ITC Limited, VST Industries Limited, Godfrey Philips (India) Limited and GTC Limited as also to the Attorney General of India.

The petitioner, Murli S Deora, former MP from Bombay South, contended that the statute was "hopelessly unsatisfactory".

Deora's counsel, Indira Jaising, told the court that the law on the statutory warning was being flouted by the tobacco companies which resort to every possible measure to make the warning inconspicuous, including resorting to surrogate advertising and brand stretching.

This absence of regulation, she said, has encouraged foreign periodicals to publish tobacco advertisements in India without any warning at all.

UNI

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