The Indian government is pushing the Supreme Court to apply a rarely used doctrine that would strip the $11 billion tobacco industry’s legal right to trade, an effort aimed at deterring tobacco companies from challenging tough new regulations.
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Government has for the first time asked the top court to classify tobacco as “res extra commercium”, a Latin phrase meaning “outside commerce.
If applied, the doctrine — which harkens back to Roman law — would have far reaching implications: in denying an industry’s legal standing to trade, it gives authorities more leeway to impose restrictions.
For example, the Supreme Court’s application of the doctrine to alcohol in the 1970s paved the way for at least two Indian states to ban it completely and allowed courts to take a stricter stance while regulating liquor — something constitutional law experts say could happen with tobacco if a similar ruling was made.
According to the government lawyer, the government is not discussing banning tobacco and the goal of invoking the Roman law doctrine was only to curtail the industry’s legal rights. With an aim to curb tobacco consumption — which kills more than 9,00,000 people each year in India.
The government has in recent years raised tobacco taxes, started smoking cessation campaigns and introduced laws requiring covering most of the package in health warnings.
But a court in Karnataka recently quashed those labelling rules after the industry successfully argued the measure was “unreasonable” and violated its right to trade.
The government included “res extra commercium” because it wants to stop the industry from pursuing such arguments again.
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