SC Rejects Plea Challenging Arundhati Roy’s Book Over Smoking Image on Cover

Dec 5, 2025 - The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed to stay the sale, circulation and display of author Arundhati Roy’s book “Mother Mary Comes to Me” because its cover showed the author smoking a bidi or a cigarette. A Special Leave Petition had been filed in the Supreme Court challenging an October 13 verdict of the Kerala High Court which had dismissed the plea.

The petitioner in the Rajasimhan Vs Union of India and Others case had contended that the cover did not have the mandatory statutory health warnings.

A two-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi ruled that Roy had not violated Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Productions Act, 2003, (COTPA) and they did not see any “reason to interfere with the impugned High Court order”.

"She is a renowned author. She has not promoted such a thing. There is a warning in the book, and she is a prominent person as well. Why do such a thing for publicity? There is no hoarding in the city with the picture of the book. It is for someone who will take the book and read it. Her picture with it does not portray any such thing. Book, publisher or author has nothing to do with advertising for cigarettes etc. This is not an advertisement. You may disagree with the views of the author but that does not mean such a case can lie”, the Court said.

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