Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Tuesday expressed strong dissatisfaction over the repeated hike in movie ticket prices without following due procedure and directed the govt to consider withdrawing a memo allowing a hike in ticket prices for Tollywood movie ‘Paradise’, scheduled for release on Sept 24.Justice NV Shravan Kumar, while hearing a contempt case, noted that the court had prima facie found that special chief secretary Shikha Goel had violated the court’s earlier orders on the hike in movie ticket prices by issuing the memo on Sept 20. The court directed that counters be filed in the matter and adjourned the case for two weeks.“This is a total violation and in contravention of the provisions of the Telangana Cinemas (Regulation) Act. This court is of the view that such memos are issued intentionally. Every time, the same mistake is made. It should stop somewhere,” the judge remarked. In Jan, the court had directed the authorities to place any proposed govt decision to hike movie ticket prices in the public domain 90 days prior to the release of the movie.Petitioner’s counsel Vijay Gopal informed the court that the govt had been issuing memos enhancing movie ticket prices in blatant violation of the procedure, which clearly says that any decision regarding an increase in movie ticket prices should be placed in the public domain at least 90 days prior to the movie’s release.“Moreover, the authorities did not record the reasons for the hike, and the producer also did not mention the movie’s budget if it was a high-budget movie,” he added. Govt pleader for home Mahesh Raje countered the claims, saying that the memo did not contravene the HC orders and that the petitioner could not raise the issue in a contempt matter but through a writ petition.
