In a setback to the State’s move to cap price of cinema tickets at ₹200 excluding tax, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday said the ₹200 price cap shall not be applicable on Saturdays, Sundays and State holidays across Karnataka for now.
Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar passed the interim order on a petition filed by FICCI-Multiplex Association of India, New Delhi, and Deepak Asher, Director, Inox Leisure Ltd., Vadodara.
The petitioners had questioned the validity of the notification, issued on May 2, 2017, by the Kannada, Culture and Information Department, which had restricted the price of ticket for all languages of films in all forms of cinema halls, whether single screen or multiplex, to a maximum of ₹200 per ticket, excluding tax.
Senior advocate Uday Holla, appearing for the petitioners, claimed that the Karnataka Cinema (Regulations) Act and Rules does not give power to the State to fix price for cinema theatres.
However, Additional Advocate General A.G. Shivanna claimed that the May 2 notification was issued with the “consent” of the association, and hence the court should not grant any interim order in their favour.
Meanwhile, Mr. Holla pointed out that the association had elaborated various conditions under which the ₹200 price cap was acceptable.
The court, on perusing the letter written by the association to the government on March 23, 2017, noticed that the association had clearly indicated that the cap on price was not acceptable for Saturdays, Sundays, and State holidays besides making an exemption from price cap of ₹200 to such multiplexes having variety of hi-tech, state-of-the-art facilities and amenities.
Following this, the court said that the price cap of ₹200 imposed through the May 2 notification shall not be applicable on Saturdays, Sundays and State holidays, during the pendency of the petition while adjourning further hearing.
The petitioners, claiming that the dynamic pricing adopted by multiplexes are beneficial both to the public and operators, and there is no public interest involved in pricing of cinema tickets, have contended that the State had no jurisdiction to interfere in pricing of tickets.
