The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow Bench on Tuesday held that hookah bars being operated inside restaurants are illegal and cannot be permitted.
The court rejected the contention, observing that hookah smoking inherently requires commercial service, preparation, assistance and supply of the hookah, flavour, coal and other materials at the table. The provision is intended to protect non-smokers and staff from exposure to passive smoking. Since hookah smoking cannot take place without active service and preparation by the establishment, it violates the conditions governing a DSA, the court held. It consequently dismissed all the writ petitions and upheld the ban on hookah bars in restaurants.
Dismissing a batch of writ petitions filed by restaurant and hookah bar owners, the court held that following the 2017 amendment to Rule 4(3) of the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008, no service whatsoever is permissible inside a designated smoking area (DSA). Under the amended Rule 4(3), a DSA can only be a separate enclosure meant for customers to smoke on their own.
Such services are prohibited under the amended rules, it said. No service is permitted inside the area, including a waiter entering to serve water or food, the court said. The High Court said operating hookah bars under the guise of designated smoking areas amounts to a clear violation of COTPA and the rules.
