A double bench of Punjab and Haryana high court has labelled artificial, chemical and extracted nicotine as a poisonous substance and has directed that it cannot be used as an additive to any other material. 

The bench has asked the governments of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh to implement the orders with immediate effect. The governments will also have to constitute a special task force to monitor and implement the directions of the court.

The directions were given on a petition filed by Hemant Goswami of ngo Burning Brains Society, Chandigarh, and by the national tobacco control programme (NTCP) cell,Chandigarh.

State nodal officer, NTCP, Chandigarh, Dr Deepak Bakshi said that this path breaking judgement will help in weakening the tobacco industry.

“This is actually a real path breaking and landmark event and the immediate fallout would be the teeth it gives to our endeavours to ban and close down hookah bars all over the country. We at Chandigarh had closed down all the hookah bars and the last one had actually filed a case in the local court praying for restraining us from interfering in running their business. We fought out and their petition was not entertained,” said Bakshi.
 
He added that his team will come up with new ideas to end the menace of tobacco. “Next in the line is to bring tobacco trade under licensing. We are working on it and hopefully should come up with something sooner than later,” said Bakshi.

Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi from Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, has been working on tobacco ban in the country. He said, "Tobacco is the cheapest and most widely used source of nicotine in the world. Many products are laced with nicotine to make it addictive and earn profit out of it. It is well known to the medical community but it has got a legal approval now. I hope government will rethink over the issue of banning the nicotine containing products rather than regulating them. This case is like a shot in the arm of recent Maharashtra high court judgement of banning hookah in the state."