A 30-year-old man from Bengaluru has been awarded Rs 28,000 in compensatory damages after he sued PVR Cinemas, INOX, and BookMyShow for causing him "mental agony" and wasting his time with excessive advertisements before a movie screening.
According to a report by Bar and Bench, Abhishek MR filed a complaint stating that he had booked three tickets for the 4.05 pm show of Sam Bahadur in 2023, expecting the movie to end by 6.30 pm, allowing him to return to work. However, to his surprise, the movie began at 4.30 pm after a 25-minute block of advertisements and trailers, which delayed the start of the film.
As a result, Abhishek claimed he was unable to attend other scheduled appointments, leading to irreplaceable losses. He argued that his time was wasted and that this constituted an unfair trade practice, as the cinema had misrepresented the show timings.
The consumer court agreed with Abhishek's complaint, ruling that "time is considered as money." As a penalty, the court ordered PVR and INOX to pay Rs 20,000 to Abhishek for mental distress and Rs 8,000 for legal expenses. Additionally, a penalty of Rs 1 lakh was imposed on both PVR and INOX. However, BookMyShow was not held liable, as it is only a ticket-booking platform and does not control the timing of advertisements.
In its February 15 ruling, the court emphasised that "no one has the right to gain benefit out of others' time and money," noting that 25-30 minutes of idle waiting in the theater is significant, particularly for people with tight schedules.
PVR and INOX defended themselves by stating that they were legally required to show certain Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to raise awareness. The court clarified that these PSAs should only be shown within 10 minutes before the movie starts or during the intermission, not as a prolonged delay at the start.
Both PVR and INOX are required to pay the penalty amount to the consumer welfare fund within 30 days of the court's order.
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