DFS gets SC nod to sell cigarettes sans pictorial warnings at airports

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed DFS India Private Ltd to continue its operations and sell international cigarette brands and other tobacco products in duty-free outlets at the departure lounges of the international airports without any statutory pictorial warnings.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan asked the customs department to release its confiscated goods and sell the same to passengers travelling overseas in accordance with law.

DFS had challenged the Bombay High Court’s judgment that refused to interfere with the authorities that restrained sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

Challenging the seizure of cigarette stocks by the customs at its outlet in the departure lounge of Mumbai international airport, DFS said cigarettes being sold in the duty-free outlets of departure lounges are “exports” and, therefore, exempt from the statutory anti-smoking warnings.

DFS counsel Mukul Rohtagi said these are exports, and the same are exempt from carrying statutory warnings. Rohatgi argued the packets being sold at its duty-free outlet in the arrival lounge carried the warnings as they would be used in India, but not those being retailed in the departure lounge as they would be used abroad. The cigarette cartons in departure lounge’s outlet had the warnings, but not individual packs, he said. “These are for use in Spain, Germany and elsewhere, for people flying out of the country.”

The company sought release of goods saying cigarettes had a short life and humid weather conditions in Mumbai were not conducive for storage of the product for a long time.