The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said the cost of food and water inside multiplexes was “exorbitant” and needed to be reduced, PTI reported. The Maharashtra government told the court it would frame a policy to regulate the prices within six weeks.
“The price of food and water bottles sold inside movie theatres are, indeed, exorbitant,” Justice SM Kemkar said. “We have ourselves experienced it. You [multiplexes] should sell it at the regular price.”
If multiplexes do not allow people to carry their own food inside their premises, they should prohibit food vendors too from selling eatables inside, Kemkar said.
The court was hearing a petition by Mumbai resident Jainendra Baxi, who had claimed that there was no legal or statutory provision prohibiting people from carrying personal food items to movie theatres. The plea said that the ban on personal food articles affects elderly individuals who cannot eat the junk food served at theatres.
The court will hear the case next on June 12.
In the previous hearing, Baxi’s counsel Aditya Pratap had said the licence that the state issues to movie theatres must have a mandatory clause directing them against banning personal food articles.
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