KERALA VOLUNTARY HEALTH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, an organisation registered under the Travancore - Cochin Literary Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act, 1995 and affiliated to the Voluntary Health Association of India, New Delhi, has invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Art.226 of the Constitution of India seeking positive directions for the implementation of the statutory stipulations in the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, hereinafter called as 'COTPA' and its allied Rules, which were enacted in public interest to protect public health as well as to prohibit consumption of Cigarette and other Tobacco products which are injurious to health.

(2.) The petitioner alleges that the negligence and callous attitude of the law enforcing agencies have in effect flouted the provisions of COTPA and its allied Rules and the same is dereliction of duty cast upon them under Art.47 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner association claims to have undertaken the mission of striving towards the goal of taking measures to protect health of the people of the State by propagating the menace of use of Tobacco.

(3.) The specific case of the petitioner is that though the Parliament has enacted COTPA in public interest in the year 2003, with a view to achieve improvement of public health as enjoined by Art.47 of the Constitution of India and as a result of the same direct advertisements of Cigarettes and other Tobacco products to a large extent were controlled or rather restricted, the tobacco companies are resorting to other measures for taking their products to the general public in a more effective and efficient manner than through direct advertisements. It is alleged that the said companies are now resorting to films, tele - serials and other visual media for indirect advertisements and marketing their products by depiction of their products through popular artists having huge fan followers in the State and the Country, thereby indirectly violating the provisions of COTPA and its allied Rules.