High Court : No cap on ticket prices on weekends, holidays

Bengaluru: In a setback to the state government, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday ordered a stay on capping movie tickets prices at Rs 200 on weekends and public holidays.

Hearing a petition filed by the Multiplex association of India, the vacation bench of the Karnataka High Court passed an ad-interim order staying the government order for three weeks till the next date of hearing. Till then the cap of Rs 200 will not be applicable on weekends and public holidays

An association of multiplex owners had approached the high court seeking quashing of the government order on the grounds that the state government does not have the authority to regulate multiplex ticket prices.

The petitioner contended that the order is against the provisions of the Karnataka Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1964. The petitioner said that multiplex tickets cannot be sold on a par with single screen tickets and if the order is implemented, it would cause huge losses to the multiplex owners.

The Karnataka High Court has directed the state government to file its reply on the petition within four weeks time.

The government had passed orders to cap movie tickets at Rs 200 across all theatres for movies including multiplexes for all languages on May 2 and it was implemented with effect from May 5.

The state government had also made it compulsory for multiplexes to screen Kannada movies in at least one screen during prime time. The cap, however, was not applicable to IMAX, Gold class and 4DX screens.