After Mumbai, witnessed the Kamala Mills incident on December 29, 2018, which took away 14 lives, the Maharastra Government passed a Bill in both houses of the legislature to ban hookah parlours in the state.
The government proposed to amend the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA)’s application in Maharashtra.
According to Bill, minimum imprisonment of one year extending upto three years if anyone is found running hookah parlours. The Bill imposes fine of minimum of Rs. 50000 and maximum Rs. 1 lakhs, it states.
“No person shall, either on his own or on behalf of any other person, open or run any hookah bar in any place including the eating house,” state the Bill. The proposed law allows any police officer of the rank of assistant inspector or above “to seize any material or article used as a subject or means of hookah bar”.
These hookah bars are easily accessible as they run in public places as well as restaurants. At present, there is no law to regulate hookah parlours and due to these many minors and collegian are attracted to these bars, stated the statement of objects and reasons.
After COTPA is amended, an eating house will have to be defined as per the Maharashtra Police Act. This means a place where public are admitted, and where any kind of food or drink is supplied for consumption on the premises by any person owning or having an interest in or managing such place, and includes a refreshment room, boarding house, coffee house or a shop where any kind of food or drink is supplied to the public for consumption in or near such shop but does not include “a place of public entertainment”.
The Bill is drafted in consonance of the Bill regarding the same in the state of Gujarat, where a person found hookah bars illegally or in contravention of norms can be imprisoned up to three years and a minimum penalty of Rs. 50000.
The Punjab Assembly also passed a Bill that provides for the blanket ban on the ‘hookah’ bars in the state. The objective of amendment of 2003 Act is also aimed at reducing the use of tobacco in various forms.
The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018 was moved by Health Minister Brahm Mohindra.
The new trend of hookah-sheesha smoking is increasing day by day and these bars are being opened in restaurants, hotels, clubs and even in marriage palaces and the youth, including girls, are using hard and soft drugs in hookah and sheesha bars, he said.
At present, prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC are promulgated against all hookah bars in all the districts of the state of Punjab for two months, with an extension required at the end of the period.
