{"id":3636,"date":"2025-12-05T07:28:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/probharatnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/supreme-court-dismisses-plea-seeking-ban-on-arundhati-roys-book-over-cover-depiction\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T07:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:28:41","slug":"supreme-court-dismisses-plea-seeking-ban-on-arundhati-roys-book-over-cover-depiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/probharatnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/supreme-court-dismisses-plea-seeking-ban-on-arundhati-roys-book-over-cover-depiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Ban on Arundhati Roy\u2019s Book Over Cover Depiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on the sale, circulation, and display of celebrated author <strong>Arundhati Roy\u2019s<\/strong> book <em>\u201cMother Mary Comes to Me\u201d<\/em> on the grounds that its cover portrays her smoking a bidi or cigarette, allegedly violating tobacco control laws.<\/p>\n<p>A bench of <strong>Chief Justice Surya Kant<\/strong> and <strong>Justice Joymalya Bagchi<\/strong> rejected the appeal filed by one <em>Rajasimhan<\/em> challenging the Kerala High Court\u2019s order, which had already dismissed the PIL on similar grounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe is a renowned author. She has not promoted such a thing. There is a warning in the book, and she is a prominent person as well. Why do such a thing for publicity? There is no hoarding in the city with the picture of the book. It is only for someone who purchases and reads the book. Her picture does not portray any promotion,\u201d the CJI observed.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u2018No Violation of Tobacco Act\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The bench held that neither the author nor the publisher, <strong>Penguin Hamish Hamilton<\/strong>, had violated <strong>Section 5<\/strong> of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2003.<\/p>\n<p>Section 5 explicitly prohibits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>advertisement,<\/li>\n<li>promotion,<\/li>\n<li>sponsorship of cigarettes and tobacco products,<\/li>\n<li>direct or surrogate advertising,<\/li>\n<li>promotional displays in media or public spaces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, it allows health warnings on packages and limited displays at retail points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see no reason to interfere with the High Court\u2019s order,\u201d the bench ruled.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Petitioner\u2019s Argument Rejected<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The petitioner\u2019s counsel argued that Roy is shown smoking what could be a \u201cganja bidi\u201d or a normal bidi, and that the book carries only a small disclaimer instead of a prominent health warning.<\/p>\n<p>Rejecting the contention, the CJI said:<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe book, publisher or author has nothing to do with advertising cigarettes. This is not an advertisement. You may disagree with the views of the author, but that does not mean such a case can lie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The book is a memoir authored by Arundhati Roy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on the sale, circulation, and display of celebrated author Arundhati Roy\u2019s book \u201cMother Mary Comes to Me\u201d on the grounds that its cover portrays her smoking a bidi or cigarette, allegedly violating tobacco control laws. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,40],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Ban on Arundhati Roy\u2019s Book Over Cover Depiction - Pro Bharat News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/probharatnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/supreme-court-dismisses-plea-seeking-ban-on-arundhati-roys-book-over-cover-depiction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Ban on Arundhati Roy\u2019s Book Over Cover Depiction - Pro Bharat News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on the sale, circulation, and display of celebrated author Arundhati Roy\u2019s book \u201cMother Mary Comes to Me\u201d on the grounds that its cover portrays her smoking a bidi or cigarette, allegedly violating tobacco control laws. 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