Following an undertaking to the Supreme Court by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena that the order to carry pictorial warnings on cigarette packs, Ceylon Tobacco Company has said that cigarettes would be released to the market in the current packing without the pictorial warnings till the Supreme Court gives its decision on 11 July 2014.

The recent Appeal Court order that 60 percent of the exterior of each cigarette pack should carry printed pictorial warnings was to be implemented by today (01 July).

While the Health Minister had also issued the necessary Gazette notification, Ceylon Tobacco Company had challenged this and the Supreme Court decided to examine and deliver a verdict on 11 July 2014.