SC not to entertain PIL seeking health warnings on liquor bottles

The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a PIL seeking a direction ensuring health warnings on liquor bottles and tobacco products, on the ground that the courts are not entitled to interfere in policy matters. Justices Indira Banerjee, S Ravindra Bhat, and Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit stated that those decisions come under the policy making domain of the government.
Ashwini Upadhyay, lawyer and PIL petitioner said: “Just as health warnings on cigarette packets were made obligatory by court orders, the same order can be directed here also as liquor is ten times more harmful than cigarettes.”
According to the bench, these are termed as policy matters with the courts are not entitled to interfere and that liquor is good for health if consumed in some moderation.
The PIL has also asked for a direction that just as EIA or Environment Impact Assessment is obligatory for the developmental projects which are having an impact on the environment, the health impact assessment (HIA) of products should be made compulsory before announcing them to be fit for human consumption.