The Madras High Court on Monday quashed a private complaint lodged against actor Dhanush, Aishwarya Rajinikanth and a few others under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution) Act of 2003.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh allowed the quash petitions and held that smoking scenes found on the posters of the 2014 movie Velai Illa Pattadhari (VIP) would not attract the offence under Section 5 of COTPA, which prohibits only producers, suppliers, and distributors of tobacco products from advertising them.
Stating filmmakers could not be prosecuted under the legal provision, the judge said: “A penal statute has to be strictly construed since the consequence of an action taken under the statute will touch upon the life or personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.”
