Supreme Court Rejects Ban on Arundhati Roy's Memoir Over Smoking Cover Image

Dec 05, 2025 08:56 pm CST

The Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking to ban Arundhati Roy's memoir 'Mother Mary Comes to Me' over its cover image showing the author smoking, ruling that the photograph does not promote tobacco products and therefore doesn't violate India's advertising regulations. The judgment upholds an earlier Kerala High Court decision that determined the literary work's cover doesn't constitute commercial cigarette promotion.