Delhi HC backs daily on tobacco product ads

Justice Kaul was deciding a separate petition filed by English daily The Hindu,which was served a showcause notice by the Government for publishing a photograph of a Formula One driver in a jacket sporting a cigarette maker’s logo.

The daily had challenged Rule 4 (prohibition of advertisements of cigarettes and other tobacco products) of The Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade,Commerce,Production,Supply and Distribution) Act,2003 as unconstitutional and amounting to a gag order.

“Its (Rule 4) object is to regulate something which is directly related to the circulation of a newspaper. Since circulation of a newspaper is a part of the right of freedom of speech,the Act must be regarded as one directed against the freedom of speech. It has selected the fact or thing which is an essential and basic attribute of the conception of the freedom of speech,that is,the right to circulate one’s views to all whom one can reach or care to reach,” Justice Kaul agreed with the daily.

Justice Kaul said the prohibition on the advertisement of the cigarettes and tobacco products “directly affects the right of circulation of newspapers which would necessarily undermine their power to influence public opinion”.

“The impugned law,far from being one which merely interferes with the right of freedom of speech incidentally,does so directly by purporting to regulate the business aspect of a newspaper,” the court noted.

Quashing the notice against the daily,Justice Kaul said: “It was a reproduction of a news item in Formula One race,and Rule 4 (8) of the Act does not prevent the press from publishing news items and dissemination of ideas.”

“The coverage of news is of paramount importance in any free and democratic society,” the court said holding atleast three clauses of Rule 4 as “unconstitutional”.