Pic of Roy smoking ‘bidi’ on book cover not illegal, rules SC

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court connected Friday said a photograph of writer Arundhati Roy smoking a ‘bidi’ connected her publication screen does not infringe the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA), and hence, determination is nary request of a statutory warning.Senior advocator S Gopakumaran, appearing for appellant Rajasimhan, challenged a Kerala HC determination not to entertain his plea for work of a statutory informing nether the screen leafage photograph, and said it was arsenic overmuch a publicity stunt arsenic defiance of the 2003 Act.A seat of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, “The writer is an eminent idiosyncratic who has a sanction successful the literate world. The publishing location excessively is an eminent one. They bash not request publicity. The publication does not beforehand baccy products. What is your problem?”“The photograph (on the screen leafage of the book) is not a hoarding successful the metropolis to beryllium equated with advertisement requiring the accompanying statutory warning.

Readers bash not bargain a publication by its screen photograph. They bash truthful aft uncovering who the writer is,” the seat said. Gopakumaran said a nationalist fig publishing a publication with a photograph prominently displaying her smoking baccy is going to promote youngsters, which is detrimental to society. The seat said, “There is simply a disclaimer astatine the backmost screen clarifying the screen leafage does not beforehand smoking. The photograph connected the book’s beforehand screen is not an advertisement of baccy products and would not infringe the 2003 Act.”