The Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a ban on the circulation of author Arundhati Roy’s book Mother Mary Comes to Me, with the cover picture showing her smoking a cigarette, reported Bar and Bench.

A division bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji ruled that the petition appeared to be filed for self-publicity.

“Courts must ensure that PIL is not misused as a vehicle for self-publicity or for engaging in personal slander,” The Indian Express quoted the bench as saying. “The petitioner has chosen to file this PIL only to garner self-publicity and to cast personal aspersions on respondent Arundhathi Roy. We agree.”

The book was released on August 28.

The petitioner, a lawyer, alleged that the book cover violated the 2003 Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution Act, and the 2008 rules.

The Act mandates the addition of health warnings such as “smoking is injurious to health” or “tobacco causes cancer” on all depictions of smoking. The petitioner argued that the book cover did not have the mandatory warning, which amounted to an indirect advertisement of tobacco products.

He named the Union Ministry of Health, Press Council of India, Kerala’s Department of Health and Family Affairs, Penguin India and Roy as respondents, The Indian Express reported.

The Union government had told the court that such complaints should be assessed by the Steering Committee under the 2003 Act, The Indian Express reported.

During the hearing on Monday, the High Court pointed out that the petitioner had neither approached the relevant expert bodies constituted under the 2003 Act nor verified whether a disclaimer was added to the book.

The court noted that Penguin India had included a disclaimer on the back cover, a fact the petitioner failed to mention in the petition, Bar and Bench reported.

Also read: ‘Mother Mary Comes To Me’: Arundhati Roy writes intimately of life with, and without, her mother

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