The Supreme Court on Friday ordered  that pictorial warnings should cover 60 percent of the surface of cigarette packets from  January 1, 2015, after considering a petition in this regard.

The decision was handed down by a panel consisting of Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and justices Rohini Marasinghe and Sisira de Abrew. A fundamental rights petition filed on behalf of cigarette distributors was also taken up at the Supreme Court today.

The distributors also agreed to remove cigarette packets in the market without the requisite pictorial warning by the 1st of February, 2015. Accordingly, this petition too was quashed.

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