India
In November 2015, the Rajasthan High Court ruled that graphic warnings on cigarette packs will have to cover at least 85% of the packaging on both sides of tobacco products. The new rule will have to be implemented from April 1, 2016, the Court said.
Currently pictorial warnings cover only 40% of one side of tobacco products such as cigarettes.
“We are not inclined to hear you, will hear only about the implementation of the order,” observed the Rajasthan High court in response to a plea by a group claiming to be private tobacco vendors. The group had unsuccessfully tried to convince the court to delay an order on bigger pictorial warnings claiming they needed time to diversify their business.
The Court said bigger tobacco warnings were supposed to be implemented in April last year, but the action was deferred due to more time requested by a Parliamentary panel examining the subject. The head of the Panel, BJP lawmaker Dilip Gandhi had sparked a controversy when he suggested that there was no Indian study linking tobacco use to cancer.