New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Friday sought response of the city government on a plea of manufacturers against ban on sale of chewable tobacco in the national capital from March 30.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued notice to Food Safety Commissioner of the Delhi government while restraining it from taking any action against sellers till the next date of hearing on May 20.
"Issue notice. The respondent should not take any coercive action against the sellers and the manufacturers till the next date of hearing," the judge said.
The court's notice was issued on a plea by a manufacturer S K Tobacco Industries, which has sought quashing of the notification by the Arvind Kejriwal government, banning sale, purchase and storage of all forms of chewable tobacco including "gutkha, khaini and zarda" in the national capital.
The plea, filed through advocate Prarthana Sampath, contended that the state government has no power to issue such a notification under the Food Safety and Standards Act and deserved to be quashed.
The company claimed that it was manufacturing pure tobacco product governed by Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, hence the power to regulate the sale or ban tobacco products rests with Centre and not the state.
The plea, also filed by advocate Kewal Singh Ahuja, further stated that the government has "erroneously" ignored that the petitioner company has "goods worth several lakhs stored in its godown for being dispatched for sale and further several lakhs already there with the retailers."
"Without giving an opportunity to at least clear the existing stock, the government's action is vitiated in law and gravely effected by revengeful attitude and thus, arbitrary and liable to be struck down," it said.
It contended that the government arbitrarily discriminated between smokeless and smoking forms of tobacco products, which is "unreasonable and has no rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved."
"Prohibition of one kind of tobacco, smokeless tobacco and leaving out the other kind i.E. Smoking tobacco, does not envisage any public interest sought to be achieved by Article 19 (6) of the Constitution of India," the plea said.
The high court is hearing a similar plea by another manufacturer Sugandhi Snuff King Pvt Ltd seeking quashing of the Delhi government's notification banning sale, purchase and storage of chewable tobacco in the city.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain had banned the sale, purchase and storage of chewable tobacco from March 30, saying enforcement teams of Delhi Police as well as Health Department have been asked to conduct surprise inspections across the city to ensure that the ban is implemented.
However, no such ban was enforced on cigarettes.
Health Department officials have said there was a Delhi government notification of September 2012, which was in pursuance of a series of directions from the Supreme Court to ban gutkha in the city.
But since the ban mentioned the term "gutkha", the tobacco retailers started selling the components of gutkha (betel nut and raw tobacco) in separate pouches. So, the purpose of banning the item was not served.
Therefore, the health department had last year started with a new proposal to ban all the raw chewable tobacco products in Delhi, a government official had said.
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