NEW DELHI: The national consumer forum has asked a multiplex to pay a patron Rs 11,000 for refusing to allow him to carry a Rs 20 water bottle inside even though it had not made provision for free, clean drinking water inside the cinema hall.

In a landmark verdict this week, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ( NCDRC ) said a multiplex would be well within its right to disallow a patron to carry water bottle inside the theatre for security reason.

However, this could not be a ruse by multiplex owners to force patrons, who have a right to drinking water, to buy exorbitantly priced bottled water from the cafeteria inside the cinema hall.

“If a cinema hall, while prohibiting carrying of drinking water inside the hall, fails to make potable drinking water available to the cine-goers, it will be an act of deficiency in rendering service to them, they having paid a substantial amount for watching the movie in a comfortable and satisfying environment,” a bench of Justice V K Jain and Dr B C Gupta said.

“If such a deficiency is shown, the consumer forum would be fully justified in awarding suitable compensation to the complainant,” the NCDRC bench said, sending a warning to multiplexes all over the country.

Three Agartala residents had moved the forum against Rupasi Multiplex for restraining them from carrying water bottles into the cinema hall while complaining that there was no provision for drinking water inside the multiplex, except the option of buying highly priced water bottles from the cafeteria.

The NCDRC said mere availability of drinking water on payment at the multiplex cafeteria was not enough. “If drinking water is available for purchase from the cafeteria of the cinema hall, that, in our view, would not be enough, considering the high cost of drinking water sold in cinema halls,” it said.

“Not everyone may be in a position to afford drinking water at such huge price, which normally is many times more than the price at which such water is available in the market outside the cinema halls,” it said.

“The restriction on carrying drinking water inside the cinema hall, where free potable drinking water is not provided to the cinema-goers and they are made to purchase it at a price which is substantially higher than the prevailing market price, would, in our opinion, constitute unfair trade practice within the meaning of Section 2 (r) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986,” the NCDRC said.

Finding Rupasi Multiplex guilty of deficiency in service, the NCDRC said, “The order of the state commission directing payment of compensation quantified at Rs 10,000 to the complainant along with cost of litigation quantified at Rs 1,000 cannot be faulted with and the same is upheld.”

It asked the multiplex to pay the amount to the complainants – Mautusi Chaudhuri, Kamal Chaudhuri and Sikha Chaudhuri – by September 10.