Millions welcomed ,the Supreme Court order on Monday which stayed the operation of a Karnataka High Court order setting aside 2014 rules mandating that 85 per cent space on both sides of packets of cigarettes top 2000 mg cbd oil – edocbd and other tobacco products carry pictorial warning on their harmful effects.

While staying the December 15, 2017 order of the Karnataka High Court, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said: “We are inclined to think that health of a citizen has primacy and he or she should be aware of what can affect or deteriorate the condition of health.”

Several activists who had been dismayed by the Karnataka High Court Order of 15th December 2017 which reduced the pictorial warning from 85% to 40% felt relieved that their fight against Tobacco got the SC nod.

Having stayed the operation of the High Court order, the court on Monday fixed March 12 for final hearing in the matter. The stay order came on a plea by NGO Health for Million Trust and a senior lawyer of Allahabad High Court Umesh Narain.

The Central government had, in 2014, amended the Cigarette and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules prescribing that 85 per cent space on both sides of the tobacco packaging would be covered with the statutory warnings telling consumers that cigarette smoking and tobacco chewing were harmful to health.

The amended rules came into force from April 1, 2016. The Cigarette and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendments Rules, 2014 were framed under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.