This year’s Pongal releases Petta and Viswasam received warm reception from the public. However, most theatres in the city continue to fleece the audience, the High Court Bench-appointed advocate commissioners have revealed. The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had appointed 23 advocate commissioners to inspect theatres in Madurai and Usilampati to ascertain if the ticket rates were in accordance with the rates fixed by the government. The court had also directed the Madurai Corporation to depute 22 officials for the exercise.
The advocate commissioners, who visited the theatres during Pongal holidays, said that most of the city theatres failed to abide by the ticket rates fixed by the government. Advocate Niranjan S. Kumar, a court-appointed commissioner, said that the collection reports were fudged. The theatres did not disclose their seating capacity and conveniently altered the occupancy rate, he said. In a particular case, the license of the theatre had to be renewed and when questioned, the owners replied that the application was pending before the authorities concerned, he said. Though corporation officials should have accompanied them during the exercise, they did not, he alleged.
Senior Counsel Veera. Kathiravan complained of serious violations. He said that the actual tax collected by theatres was not reflected in the collection. He had earlier pointed out that violation of the court order could lead to cancellation of ‘C’ form licence for charging tickets. He said that tax evasion meant loss of revenue to the government.
Rm.M.Annamalai, president of Tamil Nadu Film Exhibitors Association said that the theatres in the State were asked to adhere to the ticket rates fixed by the government.
The court was hearing a petition filed by P. Mahendra Pandi of Madurai, who sought a direction to regularise movie ticket rates in the city. He had filed a similar petition during the release of another movie Sarkar.
The advocate commissioners will now submit the report to the court.