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Ex-UOM student, I live my passion for programming as a senior associate software engineer. Online for more than 5 years now, yashvinblogs.com has a growing number of visitors and a very encouraging participation rate. This success and the passion for blogging drove this blog among the most popular ones of the island.
 
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• vicks

  car la pas private property mem sa??

• http://yashi-g.blogspot.com/ Yashi

  What if someone does smoke in their car? Will the passengers (who don’t own the car) complain to the police??? Actually it might be less annoying to be in a car with a person smoking if the window is down and there is good ventilation, compared to smoking in a house.

• http://www.themediaguru.co.cc carrotmadman6

  I think there are two reasons why they implemented the car law:
  1. Taxis
  2. What happens if you park your car near a public place & the smoke inconveniences the people around???

• http://www.tushal.net Tushal

  Even if the law is an ass, we have to follow it. I forgot who told me that.

• http://www.studenteam.co.cc Nayar

  In a car, if someone smokes, you just can’t leave.

  A house has many rooms therefore you can just leave a room when someone smokes

• TL

  one more question. can i smoke in my car parked in my garage??

• http://www.yashvinawootar.com Yashvin

  @ Vicks : Exactly!

  @ Yashi :

  @ Carrot : No, not at all. They did not introduced the car for taxis.
  For instance, taxi drivers CAN decide not to wear their security belt if they have passengers.
  This shows clearly the existence of laws that are applicable only to taxi drivers, and for special criteria.
  As for the car parked, lol!
  You may be fined for smoking, while being in your car, which is in a public area.

  @ Tushal : Not always…

  @ Nayar :
  if someone smokes, you just can’t leave.
  Oh, did that person kidnapped you?
  It does not make sense.
  According to your point of view, I guess that public places should be smoking zones, since if someone is smoking, you can still walk and go to another spot, right?

  @ TL : lol! Ya sure, you can even smoke twice as much since you are in your car and in your house(if your garage forms part of your house)

• Ashvindmi

  hey dude, there’s something important i heard them saying on the tv::

  Situations leading to a “CRIME”:

  - Two or more SMOKERS in a car, and ’1 smoker’ IS smoking;
  - Two or more people in a car, ’1 smoker’ IS smoking;
  - Two SMOKERS in a car, ‘BOTH SMOKING’ at the SAME TIME;

  I dnt think that you CAN take any permission with any1 in the car to be able to smoke
  ==> u just dont have the right to smoke when there’s one or more people with u in a CAR.

  Well concerning smoking at home, a smoker needs to respect his/her family members.

  so….”anu ale fumer lamer”

  WISH ban autoriter la publish la loi la lor journal pou ki dimoune conne zot vrai droit.

  i guess by now, la police in gagne pres 200 dimoune p fumer en public::
  means about Rs. 1,000,000

  Like this, gouvernment kaw ramas 1p largent en avance pou evite sa CRISE FINANCIERE LA………..

  cheers!

• http://www.studenteam.co.cc Nayar

  @Yashvin: Who said that they would kidnap me???

  I have lots of smoking friends. As soon as they start smoking, i just leave their company. Nothing difficult to understand here

• http://www.yashvinawootar.com Yashvin

  @ Nayar :
  In this context, you cannot compare the fact that a house has many room and a car has limited space.
  And what happens to small houses? not everyone have big palaces!
  Did the law cater for them then?

  I think we must agree on the main point being discussed here.
  How can smoking be banned in a car (when having more than 1 person) when smoking is allowed in one’s house.
  Just to add, smoking is also not allowed even if those passengers in the car do smoke and agree for person X to smoke.
  Totally ridiculous.

  Anyway, thats my point of view, being a non-smoker.
  I dont know what smokers do think of this.

• http://www.tushal.net Tushal

  I wonder when they will have smoking zones on public places. Oh wait, did the incompetent forget that?

• rajneesh

  its same as having sex, if people start asking wat is the diference doing it at home or in the car then…

• http://ritesh2103.wordpress.com Rite$h

  Well being a non-smoker am not affected at all by the new laws, but still I believe they are a little too tight towards those who smoke… how can u not smoke in your own car dammit, if it was a taxi I understand. & as for the smoking zones in public areas, am still waiting to see the signs of course smoking near food sellers & bus stops has to be prohibited, but we have to understand those smokers as well and define a place for them to ‘casse nissa’ and relieve their ‘manque’! I knw people who smoke a ‘paket 10′ on the bus stop itself b4 the laws came in, now just think wat they are undergoing

• http://dhaneesha.com Dhaneesha

  TVR…rules are to be followed guys…meme si gagne droit zis fumer dan lakaz or toilet or garage or car…but the real impact …mo pa gagne comprend juska l’hr.cuman tone dire yash, dan lakaz si to ena dimune otour twa, li pli dangerous..so y zis law????it’s useless!

• http://yashi-g.blogspot.com/ Yashi

  @ Rajneesh : Comparing having sex and smoking? Don’t be stupid!

  The main thing here is that, if I am in MY car, I can do pretty much whatever I am allowed to do at home. The size of my house or my car doesn’t matter. My car isn’t a public place, so I should be able to smoke if I want to. Now if I have a passenger, I could be polite and not smoke, but the law can’t condemn me if I do. I don’t even get the logic behind it.

• Yusuf ( Bitter Elixyr )

  The law is the Public Health Act. Its purpose is to protect individuals from secondary smoking. The law is binding on all. The problematic of the situation is that if one can smoke at home, why can’t this same individual do the same in a car with passengers? Indeed, the constitution provides for privacy of home and other property in its bill of rights, this same constitution being the supreme law of the land. An individual with sufficient interest or “locus standi” will have the burden to prove that his car is a private property which is protected by the constitution. If the individual succeeds, the provision of the law which is inconsistent with the constitution shall be declared void.

• http://lallmatie.com/blog bhoot

  It’s simply too hard (and too late) to tell someone smoking in a car to pull his windows up in not to pollute other people’s clean space (!). That’s why you’re not allowed to smoke in cars – and you shouldn’t have been able to even when you’re alone. Your house doesn’t move to public places like your car.

  However, there should have been designated SMOKING ZONES. That would help to enforce this law. People wouldn’t be forced to hide in order to smoke (in public places). And this would effectively reduce the number of people who are to be fined, not speaking of less smoking in public places.

• Amit

  Why are you bothering abt smoking in a car or in a house when smokers can smoke freely while walking on the street?? MoH says that there’s no offence in it as long as the smoker makes sure he/she is not near a bus stop, school or sports centre..

  So, if you are in a car, just park it somewhere n smoke while walking on the street and if u r at home, smoke at home or just go for a walk on the street and smoke … just as simple as that!

• Anikka

  Ashvindmi: “WISH ban autoriter la publish la loi la lor journal pou ki dimoune conne zot vrai droit.”

  Oken la loi pa vin n la loi tant ki li pa publié pou ki dimoun pran connaissance la loi la. Its called gazetting, coz every law must be published in the Government Gazette before it becomes law. So the law IS published, people just need to get hold of a Gazette and read it.

  Concerning the main topic, i just read the regulation relating to restriction on tobacco products, and i think its clear that this difference was made because in your car, you may be driving or travelling with strangers. In your house, its just you and the other members of your family, c’est la sphere privée. You don’t have strangers in your house. The reasoning, according to me, is that while your family members can tolerate your smoke, you cant expect strangers to do the same.

  Sure, the other people in the house dont have to tolerate the smoke, but they, being in principle close to the smoker, have other means of preventing passive smoking, e.g. laying down the rule that smokers go and have a smoke outside, not inside the same. They can do this because they, too, have a right and a say in the house. But the people in the streets, on bus-stops or other public places, dont have that “power”, shall we say, over the smoker. Asking him not to smoke could well earn you a rude answer and no compliance, so a law has to be put in place to ensure that people in public places are not subject to passive smoking.

  And it is surely easier to enforce a law when it concerns the public rather than the private sphere.

  Last thing: Yusuf…lol! just lol! I dont know why!

• Anikka

  Just saw bhoot’s comment, its top notch! “Your house doesn’t move to public places like your car.” I agree about the smoking areas as well, though i can understand the reason behind not providing for any (the law was put in place to stop people smoking, period. Smoking areas would defeat the whole purpose)

• http://www.yashvinawootar.com Yashvin

  @ Anikka :
  “i think its clear that this difference was made because in your car, you may be driving or travelling with strangers. In your house, its just you and the other members of your family, c’est la sphere privée. You don’t have strangers in your house
  lol, do you travel with strangers?

  Thanks for ur participation, I think its the first time?

• http://lallmatie.com/blog bhoot

  The thing is that smoking, like other addictions can be hard to stop at once. Having no smoking zone isn’t solving that completely. I think that must follow with a massive educational campaign to make these smokers aware of what awaits them! Stop them from saying “that won’t happen to me, the odds are small!” If not the government, may be one of the community organisations like Rotary/Rotaract could do that (just like they did for the recent AIDS campaign).

• vicks

  loi pas ti pe vine plus severe mo penC.. li ti deja bon.. ziste ti bizin applik li..

  ena kikun kine dire ki pas cpave fumE with strangers in my car??
  what the hell will strangers do in my call?? mo pas fer taxi marron moi!!

  what about if my brother is in my car? can i smoke then??

• Anikka

  Yashvin(author): “Thanks for ur participation, I think its the first time?”

  Yap, its the first time am posting, but i’ve been here once or twice, when an interesting topic comes up!

  “lol, do you travel with strangers?”

  Jeez, no! Not in my private car! And anyway, I’m nearly married! This topic concerns me, you see, coz my better half smokes. He’s on the way to quitting now, smokes only 2-1.5 cigarettes per day (I take all the credit!)

• Bernardo

  Please read… it will save some of us from wasting energy arguing ..

  BBC News UK: Call to ban smoking while driving
  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6652787.stm)

  New York Times: Maine City Bans Smoking in Cars With Children
  (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/us/19smoking.html)

  Medical News Today: Driving While Smoking Banned For New Delhi
  (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66594.php)

  This law is meant to protect innocent non-smokers…

  SCENARIO A:
  A driver can smoke right next to your kid/little brother/little sister in a car and she/he, being a child, won’t argue about it… Now this law protects them.

  SCENARIO B:
  If you smoke in your house, my children/nieces/nephews/sister/brother don’t SEE you smoking nor smells your cigarette smoke when you open your window.
  If you smoke in your car, he might just
  (a) see you and get slowly influenced to do the same
  (b) smell your foul smoke while passing by

  SCENARIO C:
  You’re driving in your car, window open… breathing fresh air.. then suddenly a cigarette butt comes flying in your direction… from the smoker in the car in front…

  ….It’s human nature to resist change….

• Anikka

  Vicks, if Parliament had to pass a law about you smoking in a car with your brother, then another law for smoking in a car with your mother, then another for smoking in a car with your neighbour, then another for smoking in a car with your friend, then we’d never finish!

  This is why you have to INTERPRETE the law; it is written in such a way as to apply to everyone, and you have to see if it applies to you.

  If you want to see what happens when you smoke in your car with your brother, go ahead and do it. If you’re caught at it, then there’ll be a court case (coz am sure you wont pay the fine, being convinced that you’re right). Then the Court will give its decision, it’ll become a precedent and everyone will know after that who to smoke with and who not to!

  I might sound cynical, but the Courts really will help to shed light on those obscure bits of the law. And will all you people out there stop acting like every law needs to be perfect? They dont need to be, and they cant be, if they are to apply to everyone. You cannot please everyone, and those who are displeased can go to Court, by all means!

• Anikka

  One more thing: “strangers” here has the meaning “not a family member”, that is someone who doesnt have the authority to tell you to stop smoking. Its better to have a law to cater for that, rather than having to rely on the smoker’s courtesy.

• http://lallmatie.com/blog bhoot

  Anikka, it’s not the Court that interpretes laws in Mauritius. It’s the lawyers here. The judiciary system here is the kind where debates and arguments by the lawyers hold more value than the intended words written in the concerned act of law.

  In other words, if your lawyer is better than the other party, you’ll win the case! Better in interpreting/misinterpreting and debating i.e.

  But right that laws are not made to please everyone…

• Anikka

  Bhoot: a qui le dis-tu! Am a second-year LLB student! I know its the common perception that whatever lawyers say, that’s what the Court believes, but its not necessarily the case, you know! I’ve read countless cases where the Court rejects Counsel’s argument as being weak or not in line with what the legislator intended. Courts and lawyers alike use rules of statutory interpretation and judicial precedents as well as doctrine to gauge the meaning of a particular disposition in a piece of legislation. The question of the Court being misled by a lawyer’s erroneous interpretation of a law simply does not arise! (though Magistrates of the lower Courts have been known to have taken decisions that were wrong in law, but fortunately the Supreme Court and the JCPC are here to make things right!)

  If i’ve learned one thing from my course, its that what makes a good lawyer is his ability to make the situation fall “in” the law, or “out” of it. For example, someone has been caught smoking somewhere that the State deemed to be public, and Counsel for the defence has to prove that that particular place was not a public place. Or, a divorce has been pronounced and the wife is seeking alimony, and Counsel for the respondent has to prove that the wife is not “in need” of the alimony because she already has a source of income that provides her with sufficient means for her upkeep.

  Its not lying through your teeth, its juggling with the provisions of the law, and that makes all the difference!

• http://lallmatie.com/blog bhoot

  Thanks for clearing this out Anikka. Much appreciated.

• They want your money

  I don`t know how many more years will it take to get the general population understand that these rules are NOT set for your own good. The Elites don`t even care about you dying of lung cancer because they are the same bunch of criminals who have approved Genetically Modified Food which have been proved by compelling evidence to cause cancer and many other health problems.
  Why consumers are kept in the dark about GMO?

• Anikka

  They want your money said: “…Genetically Modified Food which have been proved by compelling evidence to cause cancer and many other health problems.
  Why consumers are kept in the dark about GMO?”

  Could you shed light on that, then, please?