The Bombay High Court on Thursday reserved its decision on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the formulation of guidelines to prevent black marketing and ticket scalping at major events. 

The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar, reserved its order following arguments presented by the petitioner. 

Senior Advocate Janak Dwarkadas, representing the petitioner, highlighted that several countries have enacted laws to address scalping. He also informed the court that a complaint regarding the issue had been filed with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW).  

“Before the public can acquire a ticket by reason bots all tickets are picked up within seconds by a secondary seller. Simultaneously, tickets are sold at the same time on the secondary website. Not a single member of the public can access the ticket. This will happen in every major event. Australia has bought into law for major events that deal with this fraud. In the UK they are investigating the respondent. In America also they are being investigated for scalping. Therefore, we filed with the Economic Offense Wing. Entertainment duty is collected. In future how will they regulate that public is not cheated,” Dwarkadas said.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Advocate Amit Vyas contends that ticket scalping and hoarding infringe upon the fundamental rights guaranteed to the public under Articles 14, 15(2), 19, and 21 of the Constitution.

“The practice of ticket scalping and hoarding violates the fundamental rights of the public under Article 14 (Right to Equality), Article 15(2)(Right of access to public entertainment), Article 19(Freedom of speech and expression) and Article 21 (Right to Life and Liberty) of the constitution. The current lack stringent laws and regulation allows discriminatory practices in access to public events, where genuine consumers are denied equal opportunity to purchase tickets to public entertainment,” the plea states.

The bench said that the petitioner was asking the court to legislate on the issue which was the domain of legislature.

“You are asking us to issue direction to govt to take cognizance. You are asking us to do something which is the prism of the legislature. You have the remedy to lodge an FIR. You also have a remedy under the consumer protection act. You are asking to issue directions to create a regime. That is part of policymaking. After all, it is private entertainment,” the bench said.

After hearing the petitioner, the bench reserved its orders.