The Supreme Court has agreed to hear today itself a batch of petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court order which quashed the government regulation regarding pictorial warning on the packets of tobacco products. The court considered the submission for urgent hearing on the appeals filed against the high court verdict and said it will hear the plea at 3.30 PM.<br/><br/>The high court had on December 15 struck down the rules, which came into effect from April 1 last year, that mandated pictorial health warnings to cover 85 per cent of tobacco product packaging space, holding that they violated Constitutional norms.<br/><br/>The high court had, however, made it clear that the 40 per cent pictorial health warning rule, which existed prior to the amendment rules, would remain in force. The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014 (COTPA) .