Continue measures to monitor overcharging for tickets at cinema theatres: Madras High Court directs State

The Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu government to continue monitoring cinema theatres across the State to ensure that theatre owners do not overcharge customers for film tickets [G Devrajan v. Chief Secretary]. .Justice Anita Sumanth said that the State must also devise a way to recover the excess amount already charged and pocketed by theatre owners..The Court was hearing a batch of three writ petitions filed by one G Devarajan, claiming that despite the State government having fixed a ceiling or upper limit for the amount cinema theatres can charge for tickets, several theatres continued to overprice tickets, especially for films that starred popular actors.Devarajan sought action against cinema theatres for having overcharged for three particular films - Rajnikanth starrer Kabali, Surya starrer Singham 3, and Vijay starrer Bairaava. The petitioner also told the Court that he had filed similar petitions in the past and through two separate orders passed in 2016 and 2017, the High Court had directed the State to constitute committees to conduct surprise checks and take other steps to ensure implementation of the Tamil Nadu Cinema (Regulation) Rules.He pointed out that in its 2017 order, the High Court had said that since the purpose of fixing the maximum fee was to ensure that the public had access to entertainment at reasonable rates, the provision must not remain only on paper..The State government told the Court that the above Rules empower the licensing authority to fix the minimum and maximum rates of admission for each class in air conditioned and non-air conditioned movie theatres and multiplexes across Tamil Nadu. As per a Government Order issued in 2015, the maximum amount that film theatres in the State can charge is ₹120 per ticket. The only exception to this ceiling limit are IMAX theatres, which can charge a maximum of ₹480 for each ticket, the government told the Court..After considering the submissions, Justice Sumanth had directed the State to file a status report on action taken since the previous orders of the Court. The State filed a status report through the Commissioner, Revenue Administration, saying that necessary action had been taken against the errant cinema theatres. It also said that surprise checks had been conducted by its Cinema Monitoring Committee..The High Court recorded the State's submissions and said that it must ensure continued implementation of its previous orders on the issue. "Contents of orders dated 17.03.2016 and 19.06.2017 are reiterated. The State shall continue with the measures for monitoring of ticket collection. A suitable decision also be taken on the fate of excess charges found to have been collected by the cinema theatres. As on date, the excess charges are retained by the theatre owners and the State only imposes a penalty for the violations detected," the Court said..Devarajan appeared in person, whereas the State was represented by Additional Advocate General R Silambannan and Advocates S Balamurugan..[Read order]