The High Court has asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to respond to a Public Interest Litigation seeking directions to allow sale and usage of e-cigarettes in the state.
A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and JusticeTashi Rabstan granted six weeks to the government to file the response afterstate’s additional advocate General Shah Aamir sought the time.
One Mushtaq Ahmed Shah has filed the PIL in High Courtseeking directions to the authorities to allow the use and sale of ElectronicNicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) or e-cigarettes.
Shah pleads that acommittee be constituted to conduct a proper research and analysis of ENDS andthereafter formulate rules and regulations for use and sale of ENDS.Conventional cigarette smoking, he submits, can easily be eradicated by makinguse of e-cigarettes which has “less harmful effects as compared to tobaccoproducts”.
Notably, the Central Drug Regulator has directed all drugcontrollers in states and Union territories to not allow the manufacture, sale,import and advertisement of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, includinge-cigarettes and flavoured hookah, in their jurisdictions.
E-cigarettes are anelectronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS). J&K has the sixth highesttobacco usage rate among all Indian states, as per the latest Global AdultTobacco Survey (GATS). As per the latest National Family Health Survey(NFHS-4), 38.2% men in J&K are addicted to some kind of tobacco usage. Theonly states which have a higher smoking rate than J&K are five north-easternstates of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Manipur.