Explainer: A Lok Sabha MP was caught vaping. Is it legal to do so?

Q. What was the complaint in the Lok Sabha all about?

Last Thursday, during Zero Hour, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anurag Thakur lodged a verbal complaint with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. He that an MP belonging to the Trinamool Congress was openly using e-cigarettes inside Parliament. He pointed out that e-cigarettes are banned throughout the country, and asked if they were allowed in Parliament. Thakur did not identify the MP by name, but a day later, a video TMC MP Saugata Roy surfaced, in which he was smoking an e-cigarette in front of reporters, while two Union ministers confronted him. Thakur has filed a written complaint as well.

Q. What does Indian law say about e-cigarettes, vapes, and other smokeless electronic devices?

India passed the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) or PECA Act in 2019. It defines an e-cigarette as any electronic device that heats a material—with or without nicotine—to release aerosol that a user can inhale. These include vapes, e-hookahs, other smokeless inhaling products and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems or ENDS. Unlike cigarettes, these products don't produce smoke and are usually flavoured.

This law has detailed provisions banning companies and people from making, importing, storing, selling or advertising the use of vapes and e-cigarettes. First-time violators can be imprisoned for up to one year and be fined up to ₹1 lakh; repeat offenders can face a three-year jail term and ₹5 lakh in fines. If one is caught just stocking such goods, then the jail time is six months and a fine of up to ₹50,000.

Q. What does the law say about usage?

Nothing explicitly. PECA does not clearly spell out that using or having an e-cigarette or vape is a crime. This is a grey area and could mean that an MP using or having an e-cigarette may not technically be committing a crime, although it may be against the rules of conduct for people inside Parliament.

Q. But if importing, making, selling and stocking these products are banned, how are people buying them?

There is a thriving illegal trade of vapes, e-cigarettes, and other electronic smokeless devices in India and globally too. The numbers are hard to come by, given that the sellers are skirting the law. However, various research firms say this market is already worth an estimated $20-30 billion in India. In a report this August, research firm Euromonitor said over three-fourths of the world’s “e-vapour" market by volume was driven by illicit sales. In Asia Pacific, this number was much higher at 82%.

Globally, this market is worth just over 800 billion sticks equivalent—a measure that compares its size to the cigarettes market—and is likely to grow to over 1,200 billion sticks equivalent by 2029. Only about 16% of that global market will be made up of legal products.

Q. Does that mean people such as the Trinamool MP can use e-cigarettes legally?

Not quite. Having or using a banned product can still attract the attention of the authorities, even if the law does not explicitly say anything. In October 2023, the health ministry had issued a clarification, saying the possession of e-cigarettes and similar devices is also a violation of PECA. They argued that the ban on possession was implicit in the law because no one can buy such a device without someone violating provisions of PECA.

However, as Euromonitor pointed out in its August report, consumers around the world are not aware of the provisions of the law and how it can be enforced in real life. In August this year, the minister of state for the health ministry told the Rajya Sabha that authorities had recorded 384 cases of PECA violations between 2021 and 2025, and seized 1,248 stocks of these banned goods.