SC sets aside NCDRC order
for penalty on YRF for excluding promo song 'Jabra Fan'
The Supreme Court on Monday
set aside the order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
(NCDRC)
which had directed the production house Yash Raj Films to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation
to a consumer who was aggrieved by the exclusion of the song 'Jabra Fan', from
film 'Fan' starring actor Shah Rukh Khan.
A bench of Justices PS
Narasimha and Aravind Kumar while delivering the verdict said that it has
answered the questions of whether a 'promo' or a 'teaser' which is circulated
before the release of a movie would create a contractual obligation and whether
it was an unfair trade practice not to show the contents of the promotional
trailer in the movie.
The detailed judgment will
be uploaded on the apex court website later.
YRF had approached the apex
court challenging a 2021 NCDRC order passed on a complaint by one Afreen Fatima
Zaidi, who was aggrieved by the exclusion of the song from the film when it was
played in movie theatres.
Zaidi had complained that
she was cheated as the song 'Jabra Fan', which was shown in the promos and
trailers of the 2016 film 'Fan', was not played in the movie theatre.
The counsel of Yash Raj
Films (YRF) had contended before the apex court that the song 'Fan' was meant
only for promotional purposes and the production house was under no obligation
to include it in the movie.
The complainant had claimed
that her children did not eat food on the night when they went to watch the
film in the theater because they were disappointed as the song was not played
at the theatre, which led to a spike in their acidity levels and hospitalization.
YRF had stated that the mere
non-inclusion of the song 'Jabra Fan' has not caused any loss to the
complainant and that the claims are exaggerated.
In the year 2017, while the
District Consumer Forum had rejected the complainant's claim, the State
Commission of Maharashtra allowed her appeal and ordered the production house
to compensate her with Rs 10,000 along with a litigation cost of Rs 5,000. The
NCDRC had also passed the order in favor of the complainant.
www.economictimes.indiatimes.com
dt. 23.04.2024