New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday transferred to itself as many 31 writ petitions filed in various high courts challenging the law on advertisement and sale of tobacco products and display of health warnings on their packs.

The petitions are related to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.

The Act is mainly aimed at displaying health warnings, including pictorial representation, on the ill-effects of consumption of tobacco. The Centre has also framed the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008 under the impugned Act to ban smoking in public places from October 1, 2008.

A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi decided to transfer the petitions on a special leave petition filed by the Centre which submitted that it would be appropriate if the cases filed before the various high courts were transferred to avoid multiplicity of litigation as well as uniformity in law throughout the country.

On September 29, the apex court had refused to stay a ban on smoking imposed by the Centre at public places. A number of tobacco companies and individuals had challenged the provisions of the Act as being violative of the individual's fundamental right.