Court rejects CTC’s stay order on pictorial warnings

The Court of Appeal yesterday refused to issue a stay order sought by the major cigarette company in the country, Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC), to stop the Government from labelling cigarette packets with graphic warnings.

The CTC filed the case at the Appellate Court challenging regulation made by the Minister of Health under the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Authority Act.



According to the regulation, the pictorial health warning shall be printed on both sides of every cigarette packet, package or carton containing cigarettes and shall cover at least an 80% of the total area of a packet, package or a carton.

Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena and the Health Ministry Secretary had been cited as the first and second respondents respectively.