A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday rejected a public interest petition seeking an order to prohibit the sale, circulation and display of Arundhati Roy’s book, Mother Mary Comes to Me, with its present cover page depicting smoking without a statutory warning.

Rejecting the petition, the bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji said, “Courts must ensure that PIL is not misused as a vehicle for self-publicity or for engaging in personal slander. The petitioner has chosen to file this PIL only to garner self-publicity and to cast personal aspersions on respondent Arundhathi Roy. We agree.”

Last month, advocate Rajasimhan moved the court, listing the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Press Council of India, the Kerala Department of Health and F

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