Nicotine pouches are not approved for sale in India. That has not stopped them showing up at one of the country's busiest airports — and the fight over whether they can stay there is now in court.

Health inspectors found nicotine pouches on sale at duty-free shops in Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, operated by the Adani Group, during a March 2026 inspection. The products were not approved for sale in India. The Adani Group challenged the resulting ban in the Bombay High Court, arguing that shops in the international departure area sit outside the reach of Indian domestic law. India's government disagrees — and it is now trying to have that challenge thrown out.

What happened

The dispute traces back to the March inspection, when health officials concluded that selling nicotine pouches at the airport's duty-free shops broke the law because the products have no regulatory approval in India. Adani went to court to overturn the decision.

On 13 July 2026, the Indian government filed to quash Adani's challenge, with Reuters reporting that authorities called the airport sales a "substantive violation" of drug laws and a "serious public health risk." Three days later, on 16 July, India's customs department publicly joined the case — making it the second government body, after the health ministry, to line up against Adani. The case is ongoing before the Bombay High Court; the next hearing was listed for 28 July 2026, with no reported outcome as of the latest public reporting in mid-July.

Why nicotine pouches aren't legal to sell in India

India's framework treats nicotine as a drug. Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, nicotine-replacement products such as patches and chewing gum can be sold, but only after going through a registration and approval process. India separately banned e-cigarettes and vaping products outright. Nicotine pouches fall into neither approved camp: they are not registered as a medicine, and they are not a separately authorised category — so the government's position is that selling them is illegal. As Deccan Herald summarised the official view: nicotine pouches "remain illegal and unapproved."

That is the backdrop for the airport fight. The specific products found on Adani's shelves were imported brands: Reuters reported that Adani's firm had imported Zyn and White Fox pouches — sourced from Swedish Smokeless Solutions — worth more than $35,000 since August. Zyn is one of the world's best-selling nicotine pouch brands; White Fox is a sister brand. Both are mainstream products elsewhere. In India, neither is approved.

The real question: is duty-free a loophole?

Adani's argument is about geography, not the pouches themselves. The company says shops in the international departure area are "outside customs frontiers," so domestic regulations do not apply, and that goods sold there are sealed and meant to be taken out of India rather than consumed on Indian soil.

The government says that is a misreading of what "duty-free" means. In a filing submitted to the court on 22 June, the customs department argued that being outside India's customs frontiers is a concept that applies only for taxation — it does not grant immunity from regulatory controls. Customs called Adani's interpretation "untenable," noting that passengers who take possession of duty-free goods can freely consume them.

That argument leans on established Indian law. Business Standard points to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling — M/S Hotel Ashoka (ITDC Ltd) v Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes — which treated the airport customs area as a "legal fiction": outside India's borders only for tax purposes, but still physically on Indian soil and therefore still bound by the rest of Indian law. The government's position is that duty-free shops can sell tax-exempt goods that are otherwise legal (liquor, cigarettes, perfume, electronics), but they cannot sell products that Indian law prohibits or has not approved — and unapproved nicotine pouches fall into that bucket.

What's next

The immediate question is whether the Bombay High Court accepts Adani's "outside the law" defence. If the court sides with the government, it confirms that nicotine pouches cannot be sold at Indian airports — and tightens the door on duty-free as a back door for unapproved nicotine products. If it sides with Adani, duty-free could become one of the few legal channels to buy pouches in a country of more than a billion people, even as they stay off the shelves everywhere else.

Either way, the underlying status of nicotine pouches in India is not really in dispute in this case: they are not approved, and the government wants to keep it that way. The airport fight is about whether a tax-status quirk creates an exception to that rule. For a category that has grown by finding gaps in other countries' rules, that is exactly the kind of precedent the industry — and regulators from New Delhi to Canberra — will be watching.

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SOURCES:

• Economic Times (Reuters), "India seeks to quash Adani airport's nicotine pouch court challenge citing illegality, health risk." By Aditya Kalra, 13 Jul 2026. Economic Times
• Economic Times (Reuters), "India customs becomes second agency to fight Adani over nicotine pouches." 16 Jul 2026. Economic Times
• Tobacco Reporter, "India Seeks to Quash Adani's Duty-Free Pouch Challenge." 13 Jul 2026. Tobacco Reporter
• Tobacco Reporter, "Customs Joins Case Against Duty-Free Nicotine Sales in India." 16 Jul 2026. Tobacco Reporter
• Business Standard, "Customs joins Centre's case against Adani over airport nicotine pouch sales." Jul 2026. Business Standard
• Business Standard, "Mumbai airport nicotine pouch row: What duty-free shops can legally sell." 17 Jul 2026. Business Standard
• Deccan Herald, "Adani's Mumbai airport shops sold nicotine pouches in breach of law: Report." 7 Jul 2026. Deccan Herald