Restaurants in Uttar Pradesh cannot provide hookah service even inside designated smoking areas, the Allahabad High Court ruled on 29 September, dismissing a group of challenges brought by operators.
The court drew a distinction between permitting a person to smoke in a designated area and a business preparing, supplying and maintaining a hookah there. An amendment to the public-place smoking rules in 2017 prohibits any service in such areas. The judges found that describing the arrangement as equipment rental or customer self-service did not change its practical character.
The bench also held that food-safety and municipal authorities lacked power to issue separate hookah-bar licences, while police retained enforcement powers under tobacco legislation. It grounded its reading of the rules in the constitutional protection of non-smokers’ health, which it said could not be displaced by a restaurant’s commercial interests. The judgment was sent to state officials for compliance.