Publisher Tells HC: Arundhati’s Book Has Smoking Disclaimer on Cover

Kochi – The Kerala High Court was on Thursday told that Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy’s book — ‘Mother Mary Come to Me’ — has a disclaimer against smoking on the back of its cover.

The submission by the book’s publisher — Penguin Random House India — came in response to a lawyer’s plea urging the High Court to prohibit the sale, circulation and display of the book with its present cover, where the author is shown smoking a cigarette.

The petitioner, Kochi-based lawyer Rajasimhan, claimed in his plea that the book cover did not have a statutory health warning.

In view of the submission, on affidavit, by the publisher, a bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji asked Rajasimhan why he filed the plea without even looking at the back cover of the book.

The court a