Telangana High Court hears tobacco product sellers' plaint

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court  on Monday reserved its orders in the batch of 126 petitions filed by various traders running trade of chewable tobacco products like gutka, khaini and other products, who challenged the notification issued by the commissioner of food safety, Telangana Directorate of Institute of Preventive Medicine, Public Health Labs & Food (Health).

Since 2014, the Telangana government has been issuing notifications every year prohibiting the ban on usage, sale, storage and transportation of gutka and other chewable tobacco products.

The petitions were heard by a division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice A. Rajashekar Reddy on Monday. On behalf of the traders, the Supreme Court advocate Vikram Kohli submitted to the court that the stand taken by the state government was illegal and arbitrary. He pointed out how the state government could prohibit the chewable products of tobacco, but not cigarettes, which were made of tobacco which contained nicotine.

However, the government counsel submitted that the state had the authority to ban the products, taking public health into consideration.