BANGALORE: Advocate-general (AG) Prof Raviverma Kumar on Monday informed the high court that the state will defend its order banning production and sale of gutka.
"We will defend the order. It is a matter of policy," he told a division bench headed by Chief Justice DH Waghela which is hearing a PIL seeking a ban on gutka.
The court declined to transfer another petition from Dharwad circuit bench to the principal bench, seeking to challenge the May 30 ban order. The plea for transfer was made by the Cancer Patients Aid Association, which had filed the PIL.
"The challenge and reliefs sought are different. They (gutka companies) will also be deprived of appeal remedy if the petition is to be transferred here. You still have an appeal remedy available against the single bench's order ," the bench told the AG.
The Cancer Patients Aid Association withdrew its application after the court wanted to know how it can seek transfer as it was not a party in the petition in the Dharwad circuit bench.
Meanwhile, the counsel for gutka companies told the court that proceedings in the PIL before the high court had already been stayed by the apex court and the interim order extended beyond summer vacation (July first week) in the latest order passed in the first week of May.
HEARING TODAY
Meanwhile, Justice B S Patil will take up further hearing of the petition filed by Godavat Pan Masala Products and others, challenging the gutka ban order in the Dharwad circuit bench on Tuesday.
The gutka companies claimed that the order issued by the office of the food safety commissioner is ultra vires of the Food Safety Standards Act 2006 and the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of advertisement regulation of trade and commerce production, supply and distribution) Act 2003.
The food safety commissioner had issued ban order under regulation 2,3,4 of the Food Safety and Standards (prohibition and restriction on sales) Regulations 2011 holding that tobacco and nicotine are used in gutka and pan masala as ingredients and it is expedient to ban the sale, manufacture, storage of these articles in public interest . The state government issued another order on June 4 asking local authorities to enforce the ban citing the Supreme Court order and also in view of the fact that nearly 216 million people in India are using tobacco in smokeless form, resulting in carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects, as per a global study conducted in 2009.
"We will defend the order. It is a matter of policy," he told a division bench headed by Chief Justice DH Waghela which is hearing a PIL seeking a ban on gutka.
The court declined to transfer another petition from Dharwad circuit bench to the principal bench, seeking to challenge the May 30 ban order. The plea for transfer was made by the Cancer Patients Aid Association, which had filed the PIL.
"The challenge and reliefs sought are different. They (gutka companies) will also be deprived of appeal remedy if the petition is to be transferred here. You still have an appeal remedy available against the single bench's order ," the bench told the AG.
The Cancer Patients Aid Association withdrew its application after the court wanted to know how it can seek transfer as it was not a party in the petition in the Dharwad circuit bench.
Meanwhile, the counsel for gutka companies told the court that proceedings in the PIL before the high court had already been stayed by the apex court and the interim order extended beyond summer vacation (July first week) in the latest order passed in the first week of May.
HEARING TODAY
Meanwhile, Justice B S Patil will take up further hearing of the petition filed by Godavat Pan Masala Products and others, challenging the gutka ban order in the Dharwad circuit bench on Tuesday.
The gutka companies claimed that the order issued by the office of the food safety commissioner is ultra vires of the Food Safety Standards Act 2006 and the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of advertisement regulation of trade and commerce production, supply and distribution) Act 2003.
The food safety commissioner had issued ban order under regulation 2,3,4 of the Food Safety and Standards (prohibition and restriction on sales) Regulations 2011 holding that tobacco and nicotine are used in gutka and pan masala as ingredients and it is expedient to ban the sale, manufacture, storage of these articles in public interest . The state government issued another order on June 4 asking local authorities to enforce the ban citing the Supreme Court order and also in view of the fact that nearly 216 million people in India are using tobacco in smokeless form, resulting in carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects, as per a global study conducted in 2009.
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