Overview
- The court acted on a petition by advocate-activist Vijay Gopal, who argued the Home Department lacked statutory power to raise ticket prices or permit benefit shows.
- The quashed late-night memo had approved temporary increases of ₹105 for single screens and ₹132 for multiplexes from January 9–11, then ₹62 and ₹89 from January 12–18, with 20% of the extra revenue to the Film Federation.
- Justice N V Shravan Kumar rebuked officials for issuing what he called “clever memos” to bypass rules and flagged a contradiction with a minister’s public statement ruling out a hike.
- Producers, BookMyShow and theatre owners cited high budgets, worker benefits and strong sales, but the court declined to accept commercial arguments over statutory requirements.
- The matter was adjourned for further hearing as the judge suggested reviewing the 2021 GO instead of ad hoc orders, noting the court had similarly suspended a hike for Akhanda 2 last month.