Mysuru: Anti-Tobacco Forum and Cancer Patients AIDS Association, Mysuru have welcomed the Supreme Court stay on the orders of the High Court of Karnataka, that had quashed the 2014 government regulation made under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, to the effect that tobacco products packets must have 85 per cent pictorial warning, covering  the packaging space.

The Supreme Court Bench has vindicated the stand ‘health before economics’ taken by the activists.

The Bench has said that they were “unimpressed” with the submissions of the Tobacco Industry that the interim stay would harm the fundamental right to do business of tobacco manufacturers.

The Bench has also clearly observed that the objects, reasons and measures taken by the State are ‘appropriate’ to direct stay of operation of the judgement and order passed by the High Court of Karnataka.

A survey conducted by government in early 2017 had found that after looking at the gory pictures on the packs, about 62 per cent of cigarette smokers had seriously considered quitting smoking.

The Chief Minister of Karnataka has rightly observed that treating diseases directly attributable to consumption of tobacco products has become a burden on the State finances, said a press release from  Vasanthkumar Mysoremath, Convenor, Anti-Tobacco Forum and Cancer Patients AIDS Association.