The Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the cover of author Arundhati Roy’s book Mother Mary Comes to Me, which features an image of her smoking a beedi. The petitioner had alleged that the cover violated tobacco control laws by not displaying a statutory health warning.
A division bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji rejected the plea, noting that the petitioner had failed to disclose a key fact — the publisher had included the statutory smoking disclaimer on the back cover.
The bench also held that the High Court was not the appropriate forum to decide such matters. Under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA), such issues are to be adjudicated by “expert bodies” constituted under the Act, after hearing all concerned parties.
In its order, the bench came down sharply on the manner in which the petition was filed, suggesting that it was driven by publicity rather than genuine public interest.
“The petitioner, despite making him aware, has refused to take up the issue before the statutory authority, filed a petition without examining the relevant legal position, without verifying the necessary material, including the presence of disclaimer on the book, has sought to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of this court under the guise of public interest. In light of these circumstances, keeping in mind the caution that courts must ensure that public interest litigation is not misused as a vehicle for self publicity or for engaging in personal slander, the writ petition is dismissed,” the court said.
The PIL was filed last month by advocate Rajasimhan, who argued that the book cover “glorified smoking as a mark of intellect and creativity” and could mislead impressionable readers, particularly young women, into viewing smoking as fashionable. He clarified that his objection was to the image and not the book’s content or literary value.
He sought directions to halt the sale and circulation of the book until the legally mandated health warnings were displayed in line with COTPA, which requires tobacco product packaging to carry warnings such as “smoking kills” and “causes cancer.”
Publisher Penguin Random House India defended the cover, stating that the back cover carries a disclaimer clarifying that the photograph of Roy smoking a beedi is “for representation purposes only” and that the company does not endorse tobacco use. The publisher also argued that the PIL had been filed without proper research.
