Cinema hall must provide free drinking water if it prohibits water from outside: High Court

Oct. 5: In a landmark judgement, Madras High Court directed that Cinema Halls must necessarily provide free drinking water through water coolers if people are prohibited from carrying water bottles inside theatres. The ruling came during the hearing of a petition moved by G Devarajan in 2016, protesting against the charging of higher price than Maximum Retail Price (MRP) in the outside market for water and juice, at a food stall in S2 cinemas in Tamil Nadu.

Justice SM Subramaniam noted that the cinema owners may prohibit patrons from bringing drinking water from outside for security reasons. However, it ruled that if outside water was prohibited for security reasons, then then cinema halls must necessarily provide free, potable, and pure drinking water to theatre-goers.

According to the Madras High Court, free water that is provided inside cinema halls should be via appropriate water purifiers such as Aqua-guards or similar installations so that it is ‘free from impurities.’ The HC also warned against the violations saying that water purifiers have to remain fully functional and regularly serviced from time to time. The order also stated that disposable glasses in sufficient quantity need to be kept available near the water coolers.

The judge also said that if the order is violated, the owner of the cinema hall would be liable to pay compensation for the deficiency in rendering services to cinema goers.