State failure to stall black marketing

A PIL filed recently got dismissed by the division bench on the ground that it was a trivial matter that did not require the attention of the court in the context of public good. To begin with I would like to believe that the cause was not espoused in the right manner. Causes often suffer because the soldiers are ill equipped. This could well be one such case.

Also the comparative brilliance of the bench over the Bar and the finality of such opinion could be counterproductive. In any way it is based on certain unscientific assumptions and also on a system whose logistics needs to be revisited with all seriousness.

It is common knowledge that tickets for the blockbuster film Baahubali hit the roof. To be fair, it was open and brazen. A writ petition was filed contending that such large scale black-marketing in the open was a defiance of the law and the immediate victim was the Rule of Law as much as the citizen who had to cough up to pay four figure numbers to be ‘entertained’ with Baahuballi.

The exhibition of cinema in the state is governed by the provisions of the AP Cinemas (Regulation) Act and the statutory Rules made therein. The said legal instruments empower the licensing authority to fix the “maximum rates of payment for admission to the different classes”.

There is no gain saying that cinema is arguably the most accepted (read affordable) form of entertainment to the common man. The law that empowers the authority namely the ‘licensing authority’ to fix the admission rate also empowers the authority to suspend the license if there is violation.

It is now common knowledge at there are different rates at different theatres and some have such exclusive rates that you begin to wonder if they are licensed dacoits. However all this is within the permitted parameters. The need to examine this aspect would require a different lens. The Baahuballi and Bajrangi phenomenon require a different approach.

The government and its policing agencies were caught napping. Black-marketing in any field is unacceptable in a system governed by the Rule of Law. Pontifying authorities and the khakied vigilante are expected to ensure against it.

It otherwise reflects that the crook has got the better of the law abiding person. While as a collective we contribute in no mean measure for such large scale anarchy, the system administrators will have to get their algorithms in place and cannot look the other way when the 100 ka 1000 is on. The fact of the matter as the Telangana government came to realise is that this process has also cause huge loss to the state exchequer in the form of entertainment tax.

A news item of a few lines in the media that the High Court dismissed the writ plea filed in public interest conveys to the citizen the wrong picture. It sends signals that the court approved the process which it did not. It also sends a message that courts are for lofty issues and not what touches the life of the common man.

This again is not true. However, one does get the distinct feeling that while the underdog may find the attention of the sensitive court, the common man with regular problems and no special labels of social disability but being ‘comman man’ or ‘aam aadmi’ does not get his deserve. He is the proverbial sacrificial lamb in the social dynamics. The bali - Baahubali or otherwise.

By L Ravichander