Lifting a three-year-old ban on Hookah smoking, the Supreme Court on Monday held that a prohibition on “facilitating” Hookah smoking in strictly smoking spaces is impermissible in law.

A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Nariman, in a judgment, held that smoking prohibition only extended to public places and not spaces earmarked for smoking.

Clarifying Rule 3 of the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules 2008, the Bench explained it is incumbent upon owners of a public place to ensure that no person smokes there.

To this extent, the judgment by Justice Nariman said, ashtrays, matches, lighters and other things designed to facilitate smoking are not to be provided in public places.

But a bar on Hookah smoking in smoking areas is outside the purview of the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply & Distribution) Act, 2003, or the Cigarettes Act.

The judgment came on three separate appeals filed against the decisions of the high courts of Bombay, Gujarat and Madras in 2011.