The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the city government on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking framing of guidelines allowing moviegoers to carry their own eatables and beverages inside theatres.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar also issued notices to the police and the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India.
The plea was moved by a lawyer, Ekta Singh, who alleged that she was not permitted to carry her water bottle inside a movie theatre at Jangpura here. She said theatres in the city charge exorbitant rates for food and drink they serve.
In her petition, filed through advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, she claimed it was “highly unjustified” on the part of the cinema hall owners to “force” people to buy eatables being sold inside theatres at exorbitant prices to “mint money”.
‘Minting money’
“Cinema hall owners have framed the rules of their own and in their own manner just to mint money, which is affecting the general public at large,” her plea said.
The petition alleged that eatables sold inside theatres were junk items and the activity was going unchecked by the authorities.
“Restriction on bringing outside food to theatres and compelling or forcing to purchase junk food, sold at the food stalls inside theatre premises, that too at exorbitant rates, particularly affect the young generation, senior citizens, diabetic patients and those who cannot eat for medical reasons,” it added.
Such kind of acts on the part of cinema hall owners are against the right to choice of food, including the right not to eat junk food and right to good health, which comes under the purview of Article 21 of the Constitution, she said.
She further said even the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had in July this year directed multiplexes and cinema halls in the State not to prohibit moviegoers from carrying their own food and water inside theatres.
Even the Bombay High Court has reportedly on several occasions said that moviegoers cannot be prohibited from carrying eatables into cinema halls when food and drink inside theatres are being sold at exorbitant rates, the petition said.
