KARNATAKA HC STAYS ORDER AGAINST PVR, SAYS THEATRES CAN’T BE DIRECTED:

The Karnataka High Court, on Monday, granted interim relief by staying the order issued by the Bangalore District Consumer Commission, which had held PVR Cinemas liable to compensate a complainant for delaying the screening of a movie by showing extended advertisements instead of starting the film at the scheduled time.

The interim stay was ordered by a single judge, Justice M. Nagaprasanna, while presiding over a petition filed by the Multiplex Association of India. The stay will remain in effect until March 27, providing temporary relief to PVR Cinemas from the compensation directive.

It said, “The Consumer forum accepts the plea of petitioner and traverses the complaint and answers the complaint as if it has jurisdiction akin to a public interest petition. It indulges in a discourse about how a movie show should be run and directs that the theatres should not project advertisements, as it would become unfair trade practice. All these directions of the consumer forum are on the face of it without jurisdiction."

Dismissing the contention of the government that an appelate remedy is available to the petitioners before the State Consumer Forum, the court said, “While that may be that, an appeal remedy will not halt or put shackles on the hand of this court in exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 of Constitution. More so, when it comes across a case where the concerned fora or court has acted in blatant violation of jurisdiction”

Following which it said “Therefore there shall be an interim order to stay as prayed for till the next date of hearing.” Court then issued notice to the Respondent-State and the Complainant Abhishek M R. During the hearing Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the petitioner argued that the case raises a nationwide issue. "Mischief mongers have already started creating problems against us. The council has no jurisdiction to do this,” he said.

The complainant had purchased three tickets for the movie Sam Bahadur at PVR Cinemas in Bangalore, paying a total of Rs.825.66 for himself and his family. The movie was scheduled to begin at 4:05 PM, with a runtime of approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes. However, due to prolonged advertisements, the complainant and his family were required to remain seated for an additional 25 minutes beyond the expected end time.

Before the consumer forum, the complainant argued that this delay caused him inconvenience and resulted in losses that could not be quantified in monetary terms. He further contended that screening the movie beyond its scheduled start time constituted a deficiency in service on the part of the Opposite Parties, thereby justifying his claim for compensation.

Upon reviewing the complaint and the accompanying statements, the forum observed that the “Opposite Parties had violated the government order as per which the theatres could play 10 mins of public service announcements and welfare schemes of Central Government and State Government." The forum further emphasized that theatre owners are obligated to adhere strictly to the timings mentioned on the tickets. In this particular case, the movie was scheduled to begin at 4:05 PM, as indicated on the complainant's tickets. The forum clarified that any advertisements should have been aired by the theatre authorities before 4:05 PM and not afterward.

The Commission concluded that the complainant had raised the issue with valid reasoning, noting that several other individuals were likely to have experienced the same inconvenience on the day the movie was scheduled to be screened.

As a result, the Commission directed the theatre authorities to specify the actual movie start time on cinema tickets issued to the public. Additionally, PVR Cinemas and PVR Inox Ltd. were ordered to pay Rs.20,000 to the complainant as compensation for mental anguish and inconvenience, along with Rs.8,000 to cover litigation expenses. Moreover, PVR Cinemas was instructed to deposit Rs.1,00,000 as punitive damages into the Consumer Welfare Fund.