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MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) that sought directions to the State and Centre to frame stringent guidelines to curb black marketing of tickets at large concerts and events.
A city lawyer, Amit Vyas, who failed to secure tickets last September while booking online for the upcoming concert of the British band Coldplay, filed the PIL last year. He alleged massive black marketing of tickets for the Coldplay concert to be held next weekend in Navi Mumbai at the DY Patil Stadium. The lawyer also filed a complaint with the police against the online portal and event organisers.
The division bench of chief justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar pronounced the dismissal.
The bench said, “We find no merit in the prayer sought by the petitioner. The issues raised in the petition primarily pertain to policy and legislation, which lie in the exclusive domain of the legislature and executive. In the absence of a clear statutory framework mandating the reliefs prayed and given it is a legal position that courts cannot direct the legislature to enact and amend laws in a particular manner, we are unable to accede to the petitioner’s prayer.”
The HC, however, also said that if the competent authority considers it necessary, they remain at liberty to take appropriate legislative or executive measures to address concerns highlighted by the petitioner, Vyas.
Vyas sought direction to create regulations to address ticket scalping, touting, and black marketing for major events until specific laws and rules were established to combat these practices.
Appearing for him, Senior Counsel Janak Dwarkadas argued that since the state imposed entertainment duty on the event organisers, authorities were duty-bound to ensure tickets are not sold in the black market and buyers are not cheated.
Dwarkadas contended that some form of protection ought to be set out in a policy to prevent people from being left at the mercy of private entities when ‘bots’ may buy up tickets online, leaving genuine concert-goers and music lovers stranded before ‘secondary sellers’. Dwarkadas said tickets were being sold at 20 times the original price. He also said while the Economic Offences Wing was investigating the complaint, there was a need to tackle what was emerging as a “global crime.”
The HC suggested that the petitioner make his grievance with the State, saying it could enter the realm of policy-making or set out regulatory measures.
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