Telangana High Court Quashes Ticket Price Hike for 'The Raja Saab'

Suspending a memo on the subject, Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar cautioned the home department against deviate from the ticket prices fixed through GO 120 of 2021 issued by the same department. The judge also directed the government to not issue any memo, circular or executive order allowing ticket price hikes in the future.

Justice Shravan Kumar made it clear that if the government intended to do so, it should follow procedure and issue separate government orders.

The judge asked the government why it was continuing with the practice of issuing memos to enhance ticket prices for some movies, even after the court had specifically issued directions against the practice. “Your minister has given a statement that there would be no approval to collect higher prices for movies, and it was seen that he had appealed to the producers to not come with such requests… why was such a memo issued again,” the court asked government counsel.

The court also noted that the memos for hiking the prices for four to five movies in the recent past were done “in a very tactful manner… either they are issued at the eleventh hour before the release of the movie or just before the court vacation or weekends.”

Vijay Gopal, counsel appearing for a petitioner who challenged the memo dated January 8 allowing the enhanced ticket prices for ‘Raja Saab’, argued that the Chief Justice bench of the High Court had earlier struck down the government orders on ticket prices and laid down guidelines. The orders must be obliged by all including the courts, he said. He submitted that while issuing the January 8 memo, the government had failed to comply with the provisions of the Cinematographic Act Rules.

Counsel appearing for another petitioner asked how could the government come to a conclusion with regard to the budget of a movie, when the producers submitted the representation without any audit report. He submitted that the producers of ‘Raja Saab’ gave a representation to the government on January 4 requesting permission to hike ticket prices on the ground that it was a high budget production and gave employment to more people. The government issued the memo without verifying the claims, counsel said.