Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 2, 2022 at 15:26 IST
The sale of cinema tickets online through government platforms was stayed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday. The State government was also restrained from selling movie tickets through a planned exclusive portal which was planned to launch till 27th July.
An interim order in favour of the petitioners, ticket aggregators including BookMyShow, was issued by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice D.V.S.S. Somayajulu.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the petitioner’s counsel, said that the petitioners were charging their own service charges for providing services to the consumer. For the third and fifth respondents, an extra service charge of up to 2 percent on the ticket/rate of admission is required. The fifth respondent, who is also permitted to sell tickets online, will, however, only do so for the fixed price plus a service charge of up to 2 percent.
He argued that while the State could enter in this business, it could not be both a facilitator and a competitor. Additionally, he argued that the Nodal Agency and the existing ticket aggregators can only continue their business through the Nodal Agency and the gateway provided by the Nodal Agency (3rd respondent).
The Advocate General argued that Rule 17A of the Rules is not a single integrated whole, on behalf of the government. However, it should be understood as providing sub rules for regulating black marketing, tax evasion, and other.
Whether the AP Cinema Regulation Act, 1955 gives the State the power to regulate incidental services provided to cinema goers by third party aggregators, the court noted that that issue, as well as whether petitioners can be required to only sell tickets through the gateway provided by the AP State Film, Television and Theatre Development Corporation, need to be thoroughly discussed on the next hearing.
Therefore, the court decided that there was a prima facie case made out for interim relief and stayed the sale of ticket.