Plea In Kerala High Court Against Arundhati Roy's Book Cover Showing Her Smoking - 'Thoroughly Misleading And Unhealthy'

(MENAFN- Live Mint) A plea in the Kerala High Court has sought the prohibition of the sale, circulation, and display of Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy's latest book, 'Mother Mary Come to Me', objecting to its present cover, which shows the author smoking a cigarette without the statutory health warning.

A bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji asked the Union government on September 18 to inform the court whether there was any agency or mechanism to deal with such issues and listed the matter for further hearing on September 25.

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The public interest litigation (PIL) was moved by a Kochi-based lawyer, Rajasimhan, who has contended that the cover page image sends out a 'damaging message' to society, especially to girls and women, by 'glorifying' smoking.

Plea in Kerala High Court against Arundhati Roy's book cover showing her smoking - 'thoroughly misleading and unhealthy'

The petitioner has claimed that 'glorification of smoking' by an eminent author like her amounts to creating a false belief that such acts“enhance intellectual creativity”.

Exert a strong influence over youth

“The said depiction amounts to advertisement of the book and indirect advertisement and promotion of smoking and tobacco products, particularly since Ms Roy is a globally renowned public intellectual, and her actions exert a strong influence over youth and the reading public, particularly the teenage girls and womenfolk who are still keeping aloof in the Indian society from openly and publicly displaying smoking and drinking habits,” the petitioner said, according to legal news website Bar and Bench..

The petitioner further contended in the plea that the image violates the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA ), 2003.

The plea said the Act prohibits both direct and indirect advertisements of cigarettes and tobacco products unless they are accompanied by the prescribed statutory health warnings.

Memoir 'Mother Mary Come to Me'

'Mother Mary Come to Me ' is Arundhati Roy's first work of memoir, a soaring account of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as 'my shelter and my storm', according to the book's introduction on Amazon.

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The image, without any statutory health warning, amounts to indirect advertisement and promotion of smoking and tobacco products, it has also been said.

Besides prohibiting sale, circulation and display of the book with its current cover, the plea has also sought withdrawal of all of its copies from the market.

It has also sought a declaration that publication of the book with the current cover image and without the statutory health warning, "is illegal and violative of COTPA". At the same time, the petitioner has made it clear that his plea was not concerned about the content and substance of the book.

(With PTI inputs)

Key Takeaways

• Public interest litigation can challenge perceived harmful representations in media.
• COTPA regulations aim to prevent the glorification of smoking and tobacco use.
• Authors and publishers must consider the societal impact of their promotional materials.

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