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Madras High Court — challenge to Tamil Nadu's ENDS ban (2018)

Madras High Court, Tamil Nadu · Status: Disposed

AVI organised, funded and ran this litigation end-to-end: it commissioned the first draft, briefed a consumer petitioner — a former smoker who had switched to vaping — to bring the challenge, engaged local counsel to file and argue it, and directed strategy through to its conclusion. The petition challenged a Tamil Nadu government order banning ENDS manufacture, sale, and possession statewide, citing an RTI reply showing the state had no supporting study for the ban, and drew directly on AVI's own published research and rebuttals as evidence.

Outcome: Withdrawn, with liberty to refile, once the national ban under PECA made a state-level challenge moot — a considered decision AVI made in consultation with the petitioner, not one forced by the court.

Renamed and shortened at the site owner’s request: court and year only, no case numbers. AVI’s own records confirm it ran this litigation from first draft to final withdrawal, even though the named petitioner was an individual consumer, not AVI.