Bengaluru consumer court fines PVR-INOX for delayed movie screening due to advertisements
Bengaluru: A consumer court in Bengaluru ruled against multiplex chain PVR-INOX for delaying movie screenings with excessive advertisements and directed it to specify actual movie start times on tickets. The court imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on the company for engaging in unfair trade practices and awarded ₹28,000 in compensation to the complainant.
The case was filed by Abhishek MR, who attended a screening of Sam Bahadur on December 26, 2023, at a PVR cinema. Though the movie was scheduled to start at 4:05 PM, it began at 4:30 PM after 25 minutes of advertisements. The delay disrupted his schedule, leading him to file a complaint against PVR, INOX, and BookMyShow. The court, however, ruled that BookMyShow was not liable.
In its order, the court criticised the practice of prolonged advertisements, stating that "time is money" and that forcing moviegoers to watch unnecessary ads for 25–30 minutes amounts to an unfair trade practice. It also noted that while cinemas are required to screen public service announcements (PSAs) before films, government guidelines cap PSAs at 10 minutes. The court found that 95% of the advertisements shown before Sam Bahadur were commercial.
PVR-INOX argued that pre-film advertisements help accommodate late arrivals, but the court rejected this justification. It directed the multiplex chain to ensure that movie tickets indicate the actual start time of the film, excluding advertisement durations.
As compensation, the court ordered PVR-INOX to pay ₹20,000 to Abhishek for mental distress and ₹8,000 for legal expenses.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
