SC rejects charge against UPA minster on tobacco warning row

New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) The Supreme Court of India
Wednesday rejected the allegations by a NGO that a senior
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Minister heading the Group
of Ministers (GoMs) committee on display of pictorial warnings
on tobacco products had ensured dilution of the law to favour
the powerful tobacco industry.

A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi,
which scrutinised the minutes relating to the February 3
meeting of the Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee
on the issue, said there was nothing on record to substantiate
the allegations.

However, the bench, while rejecting the allegations,
recorded an undertaking from the Union Government that the law
relating to display of pictorial warnings on all tobacco
products would be effectively implemented from May 31, 2009.

During the arguments, senior counsel Indira Jaising
appearing for the NGO "Health for Millions" alleged without
naming that a senior minister heading the GoM was himself
owning huge tracts of tobacco crops and hence ensured the
warnings signals were diluted.

She had alleged that at the February 3 meeting it was
decided to display the warning signal on both the front and
rear panels of packets of cigarette and other tobacco
products but the GoM did a volte face by altering the rule to
ensure that the warnings were displayed only on one side of
the package.

This, the NGO alleged, was done after the then Health
Minister A Ramadoss, who was in favour of strong measaures to
curb use of tobacco products, resigned from the Union Cabinet
on March 25.

The counsel submitted that the senior minister, who
has a stake in tobacco businss, heading the GoM was improper
and claimed though they had made representations to the
government to take him off the panel, he continued to head the
body.

The apex court, which had on Tuesday directed the
Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam to place the
minutes, took time to scrutinise the documents today before
giving a clean chit to the minister.

The apex court rejected the argument of the senior
counsel that the allegations, if not correctly reflected in
the minutes, could be gauged from the letter purportedly
written by Ramdoss to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the
issue.

In the letter, the counsel claimed, Ramadoss had
reportedly expressed anguish at the alleged dilution of
the warning signals, going against the original decision taken
at the February 3 meeting where it was decided to have the
warnings on both sides of the packets.

The bench said it was not concerned with the purported
letter but was confining itself only to the minutes of the
meeting.

She alleged that after Ramadoss quit the ministry, the
GoM diluted the content by amending the rules to provide for
such pictorial warnings only on the front panels of the
prodcuts's packets.