Kerala High Court Dismisses PIL Against Arundhati Roy's 'Mother Mary Comes To Me'

The Kerala High Court on Monday (October 13) dismissed the Public Interest Litigation filed seeking action against author Arundhati Roy's book 'Mother Mary Comes To Me' for having a photo of the author smoking on the cover. The petitioner had sought a stay on the book's sale without statutory label.

Division bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji pronounced in open court:

"To conclude, whether there is any infringement of S.5 of Act of 2003 is a question involving statutory interpretation and factual assessment in view of the statutory scheme...Such matters are to be decided by the expert body constituted under the Act, namely, Steering Committee after giving an opportunity of hearing to the parties. The Steering Committee is empowered to Act suo motu and any person may bring to its notice the allegation of violation of S.5 of the Act of 2003. The petitioner, despite, making him aware, has refused to take up the issue before the competent expert statutory authority, filed a petition without examining relevant legal position, without verifying the necessary material including presence of disclaimer on the book, has sough to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under the guise of public interest litigation. In light of these circumstances, keeping in mind the caution that Court must ensure PIL is not used as a vehicle for self-publicity or for engaging in personal slanders, the writ petition is dismissed."

In the last posting, the Court had suggested that that the petitioner can approach the concerned authority under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA), instead of coming before the High Court with the instant PIL. It had then reserved its verdict.

During an earlier hearing, taking into consideration the submission of Penguin Random House India, the Court had questioned the petitioner as to why he did not bring to its notice the written disclaimer "Any depiction of smoking in this book is for representational purposes only. Penguin Random House India does not promote or endorse tobacco us" which was put in the back.

In response, the petitioner had stated that he had not perused the whole book and that that his grievance is only regarding the image on the front cover.

A detailed order is awaited.

Case Title: Rajasimhan v. Union of India

Case No: WP (PIL) No. 117/ 2025

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 644

Click to Read/Download Judgment