Today, the Supreme Court found itself addressing an unusual challenge one that questioned whether the cover of Arundhati Roy’s memoir, “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” could be treated as unlawful tobacco advertising simply because it depicts the author smoking a bidi. What began as an artistic element of a literary work escalated into a wider debate over the limits of creative expression and the reach of regulatory law.
The case arose after a PIL before the Kerala High Court sought a prohibition on the sale, circulation, and display of the book on the ground that its cover image violated Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003. According to the petitioner, the photograph amounted to a form of tobacco promotion and lacked a sufficiently prominent health warning. When the High Court rejected the plea, the petitioner carried the matter to the Supreme Court through an appeal.
Before the Supreme Court, the petitioner reiterated that displaying Roy smoking whether a normal bidi or a “ganja bidi” was impermissible and could mislead readers, especially in the absence of a statutory warning of the size and prominence prescribed under law. In response, it was argued that the cover of a memoir could not by any stretch be considered an advertisement, nor could an author’s personal depiction be equated with any promotional activity for tobacco products.
The Court observed that Roy is a well-known author and that the photograph on her book jacket does not amount to any attempt at promoting tobacco. It emphasised that COTPA targets commercial advertising, not artistic representations within a book that a person chooses to purchase. The Bench noted that one may disagree with an author’s ideas, but such disagreement cannot justify invoking tobacco control laws against a literary work. Ultimately, finding no violation of Section 5 and no reason to interfere with the Kerala High Court’s earlier order, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.
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