Consumer forum dismisses plea for damages against multiplex

A consumer forum has dismissed a Rs 50,000 claim by a man alleging mental harassment against multiplex authorities over bad quality of a movie he saw in 2011, saying he could have left the hall if he did not like the film.
A West Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum also rapped Delhi resident Lovenish Kumar Bhardwaj for wasting valuable time of the forum.
The forum, headed by its President Bimla Makin, dismissed Bhardwaj's plea claiming a compensation of Rs 50,000 on account of mental harassment and agony suffered by him while watching 'Rockstar' movie in December 2011 at Movie Time Multiplex in Rajouri Garden, due to the bad picture quality of the film.

"Where was the question of mental harassment to the tune of Rs 50,000? If he was not liking the movie, he could leave the hall and at best Bhardwaj would have suffered a loss of Rs 100 or 200. He spent more money on filing this complaint than what was his loss in the form of purchasing a movie ticket," the forum said.
It also said that presuming if a ticket was purchased for seeing a movie for few rupees then even if some part of the movie was smoky or not clear, the complainant cannot be encouraged to approach the district forum for loss of petty amount and that too claiming a compensation of Rs 50,000.

The man had told the forum that after a few minutes of the show, he found that quality of picture was "very corrupt, smoky" on the screen and sometimes it got paused for a while.

He had approached a torchman and multiplex authorities, but even after their assurance, the picture quality remained poor. He then gave a written complaint to the police in this regard, Bhardwaj said.
Later, he approached the forum claiming that he was dissatisfied with the multiplex's services and was humiliated.
The multiplex authorities, however, denied that screening was corrupt and poor quality, smoky film was being shown.

They submitted that the complainant had been informed that the movie itself was picturised in such a manner and they had no control over it as it was being screened after getting through satellite and they were showing it through projector in the cinema hall.