Tamil Nadu ban on gutka, pan masala extended for a year

Tamil Nadu government has extended the ban on the manufacture, storage, transport, distribution or sale of chewable food products which contain tobacco and nicotine- such as gutka and pan masala- for one more year.

The order came into effect on Tuesday, 23 May, Tamil Nadu’s Food Safety and Drug Administration Commissioner said. The ban was first enforced in the year 2006 under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

This comes a month after the Tamil Nadu government challenged a Madras High Court order which had quashed a 2018 notification banning the sale of gutka, pan masala, and other tobacco products in the state. The Supreme Court stayed the order on 25 April.

The State government said that the orders of the Food Safety Commissioner banning the sale, storage, manufacture, etc. of tobacco products are backed by Regulation 2.3.4 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011.

The High Court, however, had set aside a notification issued by the Food Safety Commissioner back on May 23, 2018 that banned tobacco and nicotine products. The HC said that the Food Safety Commissioner to impose a permanent ban by issuing successive notifications year after year would amount to conferring a power that was not provided in the law.