A request submitted by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice to shelve the case filed by lawyer Khalaf Al-Otaibi, which calls for a ban on smoking in court buildings, has been rejected by the Administrative Circle of the Court of Cassation.
Lawyer Khalaf Al-Otaibi had filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice demanding that smoking should be banned in Farwaniya and Jahra courts and to allocate special places for smokers, indicating that he and other lawyers and people visiting the courts are daily victims of passive smoking.
Al-Otaibi explained that smoking in the two courts violates Article 15 of the Constitution, which states that the state is concerned with public health and means of prevention and treatment of diseases and epidemics, and Article 41, which states that every Kuwaiti has the right to work, and Article 4 of Law No. 15 of 1995 on combating smoking in ministries and government agencies as prohibiting smoking in public places, as well as Article 5 of Law No. 42 of 2014 regarding the issuance of the Environmental Protection Law amended by Law No. 99 of 2015 amending some provisions of the Environmental Law prohibiting smoking in public and closed places.