Plea seeks stay on sale of Arundhati Roy’s book: Kerala HC seeks Centre’s response on cover photo showing her smoking without statutory warning label

The Kerala High Court has sought the Centre’s response on a plea that sought a stay on the sale of Booker prize winner Arundhati Roy’s recently-released book ‘Mother Mary Comes To Me’, whose cover photo shows her smoking a bidi, without any statutory health-hazard warning label.

Referring to the cover photo as an act of ‘intellectual arrogance’, the petitioner, Advocate Rajasimhan, submitted that the book violated Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2013.

Section 5 (1) of the Act says that no person engaged in, or purported to be engaged in the production, supply or distribution of cigarettes or any other tobacco products, shall advertise, and no person having control over a medium shall cause to be advertised, cigarettes or any other tobacco products through that medium. No person shall take part in any advertisement which directly or indirectly suggests or promotes the use or consumption of cigarettes or any other tobacco product.

The petitioner said that the photo was a form of glorification of smoking and sent a misleading and unhealthy message to impressionable youth, especially teenaged girls and women. He added that he was not concerned about the contents of the book.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji asked whether the petitioner had approached the authority concerned as specified in the Act, to ascertain whether this amounted to an infringement of the legislation, and to get instructions in this regard. The matter has been posted for hearing on September 25.