HC stubs out ban on on-screen smoking

Two years after Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss’s campaign prompted the government to ban on-screen smoking, the Delhi high court on Friday quashed the 2006 notification saying it violates filmmakers’ fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.

“A cinematographic film must reflect the realities of life. Smoking is a reality of life. It may be undesirable but it exists. It is not banned by any law,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said in his 50-page judgment passed on the petition of Mahesh Bhatt.

Justice Kaul said “censorship is highly subjective and can be essentially mindless.”
Observing that the ban would hamper artistes’ creativity, Justice Kaul said: “Directors of films should not have multifarious authorities breathing down their necks when indulging in creative acts.”

The ban was a result of Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss’s campaign against glamorising smoking in films. The health minister had urged Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan to refrain from smoking on screen, triggering a war of words.
Justice Kaul passed the order as an umpire judge after a bench of Justices Mukul Mudgal and Sanjiv Khanna in February 2007 gave a split verdict on Bhatt’s petition.

After failing to arrive at a consensus on the validity of the ban on on-screen smoking, a Delhi high court bench of Justices Justices Mukul Mudgal and Sanjiv Khanna referred the matter to the Chief Justice of the high court in February last year. The chief justice appointed Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul as an umpire judge to decide the constitutional validity of Centre’s action.

Justice Mudgal had quashed a provision in the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 2003 that banned on-screen smoking.  He termed it a “direct encroachment on the creativity and free artistic expression”.

But Justice Khanna held that the rules were “valid” under Section 5 of the Act.”

Justice Kaul on Friday quashed the Centre’s notification banning smoking in films and TV serials, saying it violates the filmmakers’ freedom of speech.

During the hearing, Bhatt’s lawyer argued: “I am not glamorising smoking but depicting reality by showing actors smoking in films.” Any ban on showing smoking scenes would adversely impact the depiction of reality in films, he said.

Earlier, the Centre had justified the blanket ban on smoking scenes in films and TV programmes, saying on-screen smoking was against public interest as people try to imitate stars.

“A large number of people get affected by observing what their stars do on screen in films or advertisements,” additional solicitor general PP Malhotra had said.

“There have been many instances where people, particularly youth and children, have tried to imitate what they see on the screen. In some cases people have jumped from high buildings trying to imitate what they saw in a film,” Malhotra had argued.

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I’m totally for it and think a correct decision has been made. Well done to our judiciary.
—Arjun Rampal