PIL in Kerala challenges Arundhati Roy’s book over cover showing smoking
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Kochi: A plea filed in the Kerala High Court has sought to prohibit the sale, circulation, and display of Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy’s book, Mother Mary Come to Me, citing concerns over its cover, which depicts Roy smoking a cigarette without the statutory health warning.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji on Thursday asked the central government to inform the court whether any agency or mechanism exists to address such issues. The matter has been listed for further hearing on September 25.
The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Kochi-based lawyer Rajasimhan, who argued that the cover sends a “damaging message” to society, particularly to girls and women, by “glorifying” smoking. The petitioner contended that the image conveys a misleading belief that smoking enhances intellectual creativity.
“The cover image of the author smoking a cigarette conveys a thoroughly unhealthy message to impressionable youth that smoking is fashionable, intellectually stimulating, and intrinsically linked with creativity,” the plea stated.
The plea further claimed that the cover violates the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA), 2003. Under the Act, direct or indirect advertisements of cigarettes and tobacco products are prohibited unless accompanied by prescribed statutory health warnings. The petitioner argued that the book’s cover, lacking such a warning, amounts to indirect advertisement and promotion of smoking.
The PIL seeks not only a ban on the sale, circulation, and display of the book with its current cover but also the withdrawal of all existing copies from the market. Additionally, it requests a declaration that publishing the book with the present cover and without the statutory health warning is illegal and violates COTPA.
Rajasimhan clarified that the plea does not challenge the content or substance of the book itself.
With PTI inputs