The Tamil Nadu government will file an appeal against the Madras High Court order quashing the ban on the manufacture and sale of tobacco products, including gutka, state Health Minister Ma Subramanian said on Tuesday, January 31. Talking to media persons, he said that the state government would move an appeal in the Supreme Court against the quashing of the ban after consultations with legal experts.

The Minister also said that the government would move an amendment to the legislation during the assembly session. To a question on the demand of the traders in the state to sell tobacco products in stores, the Minister said that traders and their associations must understand the ill-effects of consuming tobacco.

On January 25, a division bench of Justices R Subramanian and K Kumaresh set aside a notification issued by the Food Safety Commissioner in May 2018 banning the sale, manufacture, storage and distribution of gutka, pan masala and other chewable food products containing tobacco /nicotine as ingredients. The bench also allowed a writ petition filed by a tobacco trader in 2019 challenging the 2018 notification and legal proceedings initiated against him. 

The judges also quashed two criminal proceedings against two tobacco traders for violating the notification issued by the Food Safety Commissioner. They said that neither Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA), 2003, nor the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, asks for the complete ban on tobacco products, despite the lawmakers being aware of how harmful it is.

With IANS inputs