The High Court has issued a rule asking why Section 6(c) of the Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act should not be declared unconstitutional and invalid. It has been ordered that vape/e-cigarettes already imported into the country should not be confiscated or seized.
The secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, customs authorities, and other concerned parties have been instructed to implement this directive. The High Court bench comprising Justice Ahmed Sohel and Justice Fatema Anwar issued this order on Sunday, 1 March, following a hearing on a writ petition.
Lawyers Ahsanul Karim and HM Sanjid Siddique argued for the writ petition in court. HM Sanjid Siddique told journalists that Section 6(g) of the Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, 2005 prohibits electronic nicotine delivery systems, emerging tobacco products, etc.
Sub-section (1) of the said Act states that no person shall produce, import, export, store, advertise, promote, incentivise, sponsor, market, distribute, buy, sell, or transport electronic nicotine delivery systems, its components or parts (including e-cigarettes, vapes, vaping, vapor, e-liquid, etc), heated tobacco products, or emerging tobacco products, by whatever name they are called.
Sub-section (2) states that if any person violates the provisions of sub-section (1), he shall be punishable with simple imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 (three) months, or a fine not exceeding Tk 2 lakh, or both, and if the same person commits a similar offense a second time or repeatedly, he shall be punishable with double the said penalty progressively.
Forty-one businessmen, including filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the validity of that section. The court heard the matter and issued the order.
