Pictorial warnings on cigarette packs:

March deadline put off

Jayantha de Silva

Deputy Solicitor General Arjuna Obeysekera yesterday gave an assurance to the Supreme Court to refrain from enforcing the Health Ministry directive published in two gazette notifications stipulating that beginning from March 1 cigarette packets are required to display both written and in pictorial forms spread in 80 percentage space of a packet about health warning related to health hazards from smoking.

The Deputy Solicitor General informed that further steps in this regard would be initiated after that date. Earlier, a petition was filed against the Court of Appeal decision to enforce the Health Minister's directive from March. Attorney-at-law Romesh de Silva PC appeared for the petitioner, Ceylon Tobacco Company.