SC Sets Aside Order Of NCDRC For Penalty On YRF For Excluding Promo Song ‘Jabra Fan’

The Supreme Court on Monday has set aside the order of the consumer-disputes-redressal-commission”>National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission which had directed the production house Yash Raj Films to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to a consumer who was aggrieved by the exclusion of the song ‘Jabra Fan’, from film ‘Fan’ starring actor Shah Rukh Khan.

BENCH HEARING

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Aravind Kumar while delivering the verdict stated that it has answered the questions of whether a ‘promo’ or a ‘teaser’ which is circulated before the release of a movie would create a contractual obligation and whether it was an unfair trade practice not to show the contents of the promotional trailer in the movie.

The detailed judgment will be uploaded on the apex court website later.

YRF approached the Supreme Court challenging a 2021 NCDRC order passed on a complaint by one Afreen Fatima Zaidi, who was aggrieved by the exclusion of the song from the film when it was played in movie theatres.

Zaidi complained that she was cheated as the song ‘Jabra Fan’, which was shown in the promos and trailers of the 2016 film ‘Fan’, wasn’t played in the movie theatre.

CASE DETAILS

The counsel of Yash Raj Films contended before the top court that the song ‘Fan’ was meant only for promotional purposes and the production house was under no obligation to include it in the movie.

YRF stated that it wasn’t a service provider and that the complainant availed the ‘services’ of the cinema hall and not that of the production house and the business arrangement between the producer, distributor, and exhibitor of the movie that has no relevance here.

The complainant claimed that her children didn’t eat food on the night when they went to watch the film in the theater because they were disappointed as the song wasn’t played at the theatre, which led to a spike in their acidity levels & hospitalization.

YRF stated that the mere non-inclusion of the song ‘Jabra Fan’ has not caused any loss to the complainant and that the claims are exaggerated.

In the year 2017, while the District Consumer Forum had rejected the complainant’s claim, the State Commission of Maharashtra allowed her appeal and ordered the production house to compensate her with Rs 10,000 along with a litigation cost of Rs 5,000.

The NCDRC had also passed the order in favor of the complainant.