Telangana High Court Upholds 90-Day Rule for Movie Ticket Price Hikes

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday refused to intervene in an interim order passed by a single-judge bench that directed the state government to notify any proposed movie ticket price hikes at least 90 days prior to a film’s release.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G. M. Mohiuddin held that the concerns raised by the appellant should be addressed in the pending writ petition before the single-judge bench, rather than through an appeal challenging the interim directions.

Observing that the interim order had not affected the release of the concerned film, the court said there was no justification to entertain the appeal. “It appears that the interim order has not affected the release of the subject movie so far as the appellant is concerned. Therefore, we do not find any reason to entertain this appeal against the interim order,” the bench stated. The court, however, granted liberty to all parties to raise their arguments in the ongoing writ petition and requested the writ court to hear the matter expeditiously after completion of pleadings.

The issue arose from a memo issued by the Telangana home department on January 8, which permitted a ticket price hike for the Chiranjeevi-starrer Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu, scheduled for release on January 12. The memo was challenged by advocate Dachepally Chandra Babu, who argued that last-minute approvals for ticket price hikes deprive the public of their statutory right to seek a review or submit representations under Section 7A of the Telangana Cinemas Regulation Act, 1955.

On January 20, Justice N. V. Shravan Kumar passed an interim order directing the state to place any decision regarding ticket price hikes at least 90 days before a film’s release, as mandated under Section 7A of the Act. The objective, the court noted, was to allow stakeholders, including the audience, sufficient time to seek a review of such decisions.

Aggrieved by this order, the film’s producers, M/s Shine Screens India LLP, filed an appeal, contending that the writ court had granted excessive interim relief. They argued that the petitioner could not claim to be an interested party for all upcoming films and that enforcing a strict 90-day rule would adversely impact producers, particularly when price revisions are driven by financial considerations.

After recording the submissions, the division bench reiterated that since the main writ petition is still pending, all issues raised by the appellant can be adequately examined by the writ court. Concluding that there was no ground to interfere with the interim order, the High Court dismissed the appeal.