While dismissing the Writ application filed by the Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC), the Court of Appeal today permitted the Ministry of Health to cover 50- 60 percent of cigarette packs with pictorial warnings portraying ill-effects of smoking. 

The Ministry of Health initially requested permission to cover 80 percent of cigarette packets with pictorial warnings. The request resulted in a long drawn legal battle between the Ministry of Health and the hefty Ceylon Tobacco Company.

World Health Organization  Framework Convention on Tobacco Control required the parties to it to implement such health warnings on tobacco packages and labelling. Sri Lanka became a signatory to this Convention in 2005 and as a follow-up action in the control of tobacco use, the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol was established. Sri Lanka's Parliament unanimously approved the legislation to carry pictorial warnings on cigarette packets.

More than 100 countries all over the world carry pictorial warnings on cigarette packets and other tobacco products. International studies and surveys have repeatedly proven that pictorial warnings on tobacco products have produced satisfactory results in many parts of the world. If and when the decision is implemented, Sri Lanka will become one of the countries that have largest pictorial warnings on tobacco products in the world (60%). In many countries the percentage of pictorial warnings on cigarette packs stands between 30 - 60 percent, statistics revealed by the World Health Organization said. 

What requires emphasis is the fact that even smokers want to see more health information on cigarette packages. Data from ITC surveys of smokers from 10 countries in 2006 showed that the percentage of smokers who wanted to see more information on cigarette packages was greater than the percentage of smokers who wanted to see less information – even in countries where pictorial warning labels had already been introduced. This was further affirmed in many studies that were done over the past few years.

In Sri Lanka's case law makers wanted pictorial warning; the Ministry of Health wanted it; the common public wanted it; even the smokers wanted it. 

The only party which resisted the move was the Ceylon Tobacco Company. That is why the Court of Appeal decision is of crucial importance not only to the health sector of Sri Lanka, but also to the common public.