The Bombay High Court on Friday declined a plea that sought the establishment of stringent guidelines to combat black marketing and ticket scalping for major events, including the upcoming Coldplay concert in Navi Mumbai. The division bench, consisting of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar, ruled that the issues raised fall under the legislative and executive domain, thus limiting the court’s capacity to intervene.
The plea, brought forward by advocate Amit Vyas, highlighted alleged irregularities in the ticket sales for high-profile events, citing the recent frenzy around Coldplay’s concert tickets on the online platform BookMyShow. Vyas argued that these practices not only included the Coldplay concert but were also prevalent during IPL matches, the 2023 Cricket World Cup, and concerts by Taylor Swift and Diljit Dosanjh.
In his petition, Vyas claimed that the process facilitated by BookMyShow was manipulated to the extent that tickets appeared as sold out within minutes of becoming available, only to be later found at significantly higher prices on secondary websites. He alleged that such actions exploit fans and called for immediate judicial intervention to prevent further abuse in the ticketing market.
However, the court emphasized that it is beyond its jurisdiction to dictate legislative or executive actions. “This is a legislative and executive decision. The court cannot interfere. The government is at liberty to formulate legislation addressing the concerns raised in the petition,” the bench noted. They also allowed the petitioner the opportunity to make a representation before the competent authority to address these concerns directly.
