Karnataka HC stays consumer court order against PVR Inox mandating movie start times on tickets

New Delhi: The Karnataka High Court, on Monday, directed to stay the order passed by the Bengaluru District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission holding PVR Inox liable to pay compensation for showing long ads and showing misleading timings on the movie tickets. 

Providing an interim relief till March 27, the HC declared the directions by the consumer forum, on the face of it, “without jurisdiction”. 

A petitioner, last month, filed a complaint against PVR Inox for wasting his time with lengthy advertisements. As a result, the Bengaluru Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed PVR to clearly mention the actual movie start time on tickets, excluding ad durations. 

Furthermore, the court ordered PVR INOX to pay Rs 20,000 to the complainant for the inconvenience caused and an additional Rs 8,000 for the expenses incurred to file the complaint. 

Responding to the verdict, PVR Inox, on February 20, 2025, issued a statement that it will contest the order “before the appropriate legal forum.”

While hearing a petition filed by the Multiplex Association of India, the Karnataka HC passed an order putting a stay on the forum’s verdict till March 27. 

The judge looking at the case, in its order, 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 an unfair trade practice. All these directions of the consumer forum are on the face of it without jurisdiction.” 

The court noted that while an appellate remedy is available to the petitioner before the state consumer forum, the appeal remedy cannot halt or “put shackles on the hand of this court in exercising jurisdiction" under the Article 226 of the constitution. 

“More so, when it comes across a case where the concerned fora or court has acted in blatant violation of jurisdiction,” the court added. 

During the hearings in the forum, the body had countered 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 and state government.”