Consumer court orders Guwahati cinema hall to pay Rs 60,000 to woman who was bitten by rat

PTI, May 6, 2023, 9:56 AM IST

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A cinema hall in Guwahati was asked by a consumer court to pay Rs 60,000 to a 50-year-old woman, who was bitten by a rat during a movie show.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Kamrup directed Galleria Cinema in Bhangagarh to pay the woman Rs 40,000 as compensation for mental agony, and Rs 20,000 for pain and suffering, besides reimbursement of medical bill of Rs 2,282 and another Rs 5,000 towards covering the cost of proceedings.

The woman had gone to the hall with her family for the 9 pm show of a movie on October 20, 2018. During the interval, she felt something had bitten her on the foot, and she immediately rushed out after starting to bleed, her lawyer Anita Verma told PTI on Friday.

The cinema hall authorities failed to provide her with any first aid and none of its staff accompanied her to the hospital, she maintained.

”At the hospital, she was kept under observation for two hours as the doctors were initially not sure what had bitten her. She was later treated for rat bite,” Verma added.

She moved the court, seeking compensation of Rs 6 lakh for mental agony, pain and suffering, besides the amount incurred towards her medical treatment and other expenses.

Contesting the allegations, Galleria Cinema said that proper hygiene is maintained within its premise and that they had offered first aid to the woman, which she had refused.

Galleria Cinema urged the court to reject the complaint, and sought a compensatory cost of Rs 15,000.

After hearing the arguments, and taking into consideration the documents submitted by woman and that no evidence could be produced in support of the claims made by the cinema hall, the court ordered the payment of the compensation on April 25.

The cinema hall was negligent in maintaining hygiene for giving proper service to the viewers as required under the Cinematography Act and other obligations, the court said.

The amount is to be paid within 45 days, failing which an interest of 12 per cent per annum will be levied from the date of judgement, it said.