VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Principal Secretary (Home department) Kumar Vishwajeet, on Thursday clarified that the GO No 35 issued by the State government to fix prices of movie tickets in theatres hold good and is applicable across the State, barring the petitioners who got interim orders from the AP High Court recently.He also opined that there was no need to form committees for movie ticket pricing.

The AP Government on Wednesday filed an appeal petition challenging the single judge order suspending GO 35. A lunch motion petition was moved to request to hear the matter urgently by Advocate General (AG) S Sriram to a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Mallavolu Satyanarayanamurthy. The bench agreed to hear the petition on Thursday. It has been stated that the GO will not be applicable in 225 theatres that were the petitioners who were predominantly from North Andhra and East Godavari districts and also four theatres in Tenali, Guntur district, and one theatre in Chodavaram. The GO No 35 however will be applicable to all the other theatres and this was explicitly mentioned in the Interim Order Copy, the court stated.

On Tuesday, the high court after hearing the three petitions moved by the management of movie theatres passed interim orders suspending the operation of GO 35 and allowing fixing ticket prices following the process that was in force prior to issuance of the GO. The government has always stated in its stance that GO 35 was issued in view of public interest at large. Ticket prices cannot be increased as managements want, citing the budget of movies and expenses. The prices of tickets have been fixed after taking all aspects into consideration and in accordance with the law, argued the state government. Considering the arguments on both sides, the high court observed that prima facie the GO is not in conformity with high court judgments and granted interim relief to theatre managements by suspending the GO.

In today's clarification, the High Court has stated that the GO is applicable in all theatres barring the 225 theatre owners who filed the petition in court.