CTC goes to Supreme Court to overturn CA ruling

27 February 2013 03:17 am

The Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) has filed documents with the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka seeking to overturn the decision of the Court of Appeal to reject a stay order on new government regulations with regards to the labelling of cigarettes in the country.

CTC had previously challenged the Tobacco Products (Labelling and Packaging) Regulations No. 01 of 2012 published by the Minister of Health in the Government Gazette Extraordinary No 1770/15 dated 8 August 2012 in the Court of Appeal; however the appellate court quashed the petition on February 22.

The Health Minister, Health Ministry Secretary and the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol have been cited as respondents in the petition.

If CTC’s petition fails, CTC will be required to package cigarette with pictorial health warnings printed on both sides of the pack, covering a minimum of 80% of the pack’s surface from March 1.

Further, the firm will also be prohibited from carrying words such as ‘low’, ‘light’, ‘ultra’, ‘mild’ or ‘extra’ or any other terms which imply that one type of tobacco is less harmful than another.

Steps to impose stringent regulations on the packaging of tobacco products are becoming an accepted global norm, most prevalent in countries like Australia where cigarette packs now carry macabre images along with an intentionally unappealing design in an attempt to drive smokers away from the product.

The concept of ‘plain packaging’ is one that is currently being debated across several jurisdictions including India, Cananda, and the European Union amongst others.

Anti-smoking trends have also spread across to Russia where President Vladimir Putin recently approved a ban on smoking in public places as well as advertising or sponsorship of events by tobacco firms.