No gutkha in plastic sachets from March, says SC
THE Supreme Court on Thursday declined to stay an order banning the sale of tobacco products like gutkha and pan masala in plastic sachets beyond March 1.
Taking serious notice of the government’s submission that 90 per cent of oral cancer cases in the country are on account of consumption of these tobacco products, a Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly declined to relax the deadline imposed by it on December 7, 2010.
The apex court also sought the government’s response on various interim and interlocutory applications challenging the government’s February 4 notification implementing the Plastic Management and Disposal Rules 2009 to regulate the use of plastic for packaging gutkha and other tobacco products.
Quoting extensively from a report by a governmentengaged expert body, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium submitted that 86 per cent of oral cancer cases in the world originate from India and of this 90 per cent are on account of chewing tobacco products.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by gutkha and pan masala manufacturers challenging a Rajasthan High Court order banning use of plastic sachets.
The apex court had on December 7 restrained gutkha, pan masala and chewing tobacco manufacturers from using plastic as packaging material for their products by March 1, 2011.
It had also ordered the government to entrust an independent agency with the task of testing the contents of these sachets to evaluate the risk they pose to consumers.
The court directed the government to enforce the Plastic Management and Disposal Rules of 2009 within eight weeks.