The government, in an ordinance piloted by the Health Ministry, is planning to ban e-cigarettes and vaping devices. A cabinet clearance and subsequent notification would put the ban into effect.
The ordinance banning all Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) will be brought before the cabinet on Wednesday. Based on the recommendation of an expert committee report of the Indian Council of Medical Research, the ordinance may later also be converted to a law with parliamentary clearance in the winter session.
Under the ordinance, health ministry has proposed making the production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale, distribution or advertisements of e-cigarettes a cognizable offence.
Last year, the health ministry had issued an advisory to restrict advertisements of e-cigarettes. The central drug regulator wrote to state drug controllers to ensure effective implementation of the government order.
The Delhi High Court, however, stayed the move earlier this year.
Some tobacco manufactures have earlier posited against a blanket ban on e-cigarettes and have also written to the government in this regard.
Recently, hundreds of people across the United States have been suffering from a severe lung illness linked to vaping, and a handful have died. Many were otherwise healthy young people, in their teens or early 20s.
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