SC dismisses plea to ban Arundhati Roy's book over smoking photo

The Supreme Court rejected a plea to ban Arundhati Roy's book 'Mother Mary Comes to Me'. The court ruled that the cover image of the author smoking does not violate tobacco laws as it is not intended to promote smoking for commercial purposes.

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking ban of acclaimed author Arundhati Roy's book, 'Mother Mary Comes to Me', alleging that the cover picture depicts the author smoking cigarette/beedi in violation of a central legislation.

No Intent to Promote Smoking, Rules Court

A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi reasoned that the use of the said picture in the book cover is in no way intended to promote smoking and that the Disclaimer in the back of the book clarifies that. "The book, the photograph, the publisher or the author, none of these persons have anything to do with promoting cigarettes. She is a renowned author. Even the publisher is renowned. It is not an advertisement for cigarettes", the Court observed.

The Court rejected the appeal and upheld the decision passed by the Kerala High Court. "The picture in the book does not constitute any violation of Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. We don't see any reason to interfere with the impugned order passed by the High Court," the Court noted.

The petitioner moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Kerala High Court's decision to reject his plea seeking a ban on the promotion, sale, distribution, etc, of Roy's book, as its cover image depicted the author smoking without a proper health warning.

During today's hearing in the Supreme Court, the counsel for the petitioner argued that the disclaimer to the cover picture is on the back side of the book and does not justify the author's smoking image sufficiently. However, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court's reasoning in dismissing the plea, which held that the image does not intend to promote cigarette smoking for commercial purposes.

The top court verbally observed that the said book cover is not being used for commercial purposes on hoardings or banners across cities. Instead, it only concerns people who are interested in buying and reading the renowned authors' memoirs.

After hearing the petitioner for some time, the apex court dismissed the appeal and upheld the High Court's decision. (ANI)

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