Home / Arts and Entertainment / Court Lifts Parking Fee Ban for Hyderabad Theatres
Court Lifts Parking Fee Ban for Hyderabad Theatres
19 Mar
Summary
- High court overturned a single judge's order on theatre parking fees.
- The ruling affects standalone theatres in Greater Hyderabad Municipal areas.
- A 2021 government order permitting parking fees is now reinstated.
On Wednesday, the Telangana High Court overturned a single judge's order that had prohibited standalone cinema theatres in Greater Hyderabad and surrounding municipal areas from charging parking fees to moviegoers with tickets. A division bench, led by Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, issued this direction in response to an appeal filed by several theatre owners.
The court specified that the earlier interim order, granted on March 6, was applicable only to the Asian Konark theatre, where the initial complaint about parking charges was made. This ruling reinstates the effect of a 2021 Government Order (GO) that permitted standalone theatres to levy parking fees on their premises.
The government had justified the 2021 GO by citing issues with non-moviegoers using theatre parking, leading to maintenance and safety concerns. However, a single judge had previously suspended this order, referencing a 2018 GO that generally disallowed parking fees for commercial establishments, with certain conditions.
The division bench noted that the single judge's order, initially targeting a specific theatre, had inadvertently acted more broadly. The court advised appellant theatres to implead themselves in the pending writ petition to present their arguments.
