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The Bombay High Court has admitted the public interest litigation filed against the government, insurance regulator IRDAI and public sector insurance companies for holding substantial stake in cigarette making company ITC.
Reviewing the petition, Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice GS Kulkarni issued a notice seeking response from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the issue. The next hearing is slated for April 27.
Last Thursday, eminent personalities including R Venkataramanan, Managing Trustee, Tata Trust; Laxman Sethuraman, Head – Project Management Group, Tata Trust; Pankaj Chaturvedi, Surgeon, Tata Memorial Hospital; and others moved the Court seeking direction from the government and the IRDAI to frame a law that restrains public sector companies from investing in tobacco companies, besides ensuring that the present holdings of insurance companies are divested.
The five insurance companies – Life Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance Company, General Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and National Insurance Company – along with SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India) hold about 32 per cent in ITC valued at ₹1.07 lakh crore while the insurance companies alone own shares worth ₹76,500 crore, the petition said. Pleading for an early hearing, Waseem Pangarkar, MZM Legal (the firm representing the petitioners), said while the government is consciously trying to address the menace of tobacco usage, institutions and companies owned by it are investing in tobacco companies. In fact, he added, LIC increased its stake in ITC by acquiring two per cent SUUTI in February.
There is an urgent need for all the departments falling within the ambit of the government to align to one line of action as mandated under various statutes such as COPTA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, and others, and the government’s own line of thinking.
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