The Supreme Court today ordered the Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) to include 60% pictorial warnings on cigarette packets released to the market from January 01, 2015.
The verdict was delivered by a judge bench comprising Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, Justice Rohini Marasinghe and Justice Sisira J. De Abrew when the Fundamental Rights petition filed by the CTC against the pictorial warnings was taken up for hearing today.
The recent Appeal Court order that 60 percent of the exterior of each cigarette pack should carry printed pictorial warnings was to be implemented by July 1 this year.
However, the Ceylon Tobacco Company has said that cigarettes would be released to the market in the current packing without the pictorial warnings till the Supreme Court gives its decision.
While the Health Minister had also issued the necessary Gazette notification, Ceylon Tobacco Company had challenged this and the Supreme Court decided to examine and deliver a verdict today (July 11).
