Overview
- A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on December 5 dismissed a special leave petition targeting the memoir’s cover.
- The decision leaves intact the Kerala High Court’s October 13 ruling and allows the book’s sale, circulation, and display to continue.
- The court found Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act regulates advertising rather than a literary cover image and held there was no violation by the author or publisher.
- Judges noted the work’s literary character and referenced a publisher disclaimer stating the photograph was not an endorsement of tobacco use.
- The petitioner, represented by senior advocate Gopal Kumaran, claimed the cover lacked statutory warnings and questioned the substance being smoked, arguments the bench rejected as lacking merit.