The High Court on Monday ordered issue of notices to the Karnataka and the Union governments in connection with a plea seeking a ban on sale of gutka and other tobacco products in the State.
Hearing a plea filed by the Cancer Patients Aid Association, the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen directed the State government to file objections by two weeks.
The petitioner told the court that the Union government, under the Food Safety and Standard Act 2006, had framed certain rules in 2011 banning food containing tobacco and nicotine. “Under the rule, gutka and paan masala are classified as food items and should be prohibited,” said Jeyna Kothari, counsel for the petitioners.
Pointing out that the Union government had in April 2012 written to the state governments to implement the ban, Kothari said the governments in Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh had already banned gutka and paan masala.