AMRAPALI CINEMA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner Gopal Kumar Bhartia runs a Cinema under the name of M/s Amrapali Cinema at Danapur. The licence for running the cinema was granted in the year 1975 with a sitting capacity of 902 persons.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner the number of viewers coming to the cinema has sharply declined and he, therefore, made an application before the licensing authority, the Collector, Patna (Annexure -1) for reducing the number of seats to 624. As no action was taken on his application, the petitioner came to this court in C.W.J.C No. 4426 of 2002 seeking appropriate direction to the licensing authority. This petition was disposed of by order, dated 5.7.2002 asking the licensing authority to pass an order on the petitioner 'srequest, if need be, after getting the cinema -hall inspected on several days consecutively.

(3.) IN the impugned order the Collector enumerated the findings of the inspection report which led to the decision not to allow any reduction in the number of seats in the Cinema -hall. The findings which were taken took note of by the Collector are as follows :