Chennai: Forced to pay more for a Kabali ticket? Call 044-23452359 and report to this ‘control room’ on the theatre charging the excess fare. “We will take down the complaint and immediately forward it to the jurisdictional inspector of police for action. We promise”, said an officer at the control room, when this reporter called the number.
The phone number was given out by the state government following a directive from the Madras high court on March 17 this year while disposing a PIL complaining about theatres charging exorbitantly for some movies.
Holding that theatres should not charge more than Rs 120 per ticket, the exception being IMAX halls for which the government had fixed the maximum at Rs480, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M. M. Sundresh had categorically held that there “is no legal dispute” in these rate restrictions.
The bench had noted, rather with a tone of regret, that much needed to be done at the ground level to ensure compliance, which must be done by the commercial taxes department and the licensing authority instead of the public petitioning the courts complaining that theatres are charging exorbitant rates for a certain film.
Following a court directive that the authorities must constitute a special team to monitor violations and also inform the public the “methodology of giving such complaints telephonically to facilitate information to flow to the team” within three weeks, the government constituted a three-member team comprising an assistant commissioner of police, a commercial tax officer and a revenue officer to monitor complaints and take action against the ‘erring’ theatre owners. It was announced that the public could report excessive ticket charges to phone 044-23452359.
While it is not clear whether any ‘special team’ is still in operation to curtain excess charging, the phone number at least appears to be ‘still ringing’ and the voice at the other end promises some action, for whatever it is worth.
The PIL petitioner of March 17, G. Devarajan, once again moved the high court with another petition recently to restrain Kabali producer Kalaipuli Thanu from releasing the film on July 22 because theatres are charging hugely excessive rates for admission. Justice N. Kirubakaran dismissed the petition saying that Devarajan had rushed to the court without giving sufficient time to the authorities to consider his grievance.
“It is open to the petitioner to approach the court after ascertaining whether his representation has reached the authorities or not. Petition is dismissed”, the judge said in his order on Tuesday (July 19).
