No parking fee in stand-alone cinema theatres: HC

The Telangana High Court passed an interim order temporarily suspending GO Ms. No. 121 permitting owners of stand-alone theatres to collect the parking fee from persons parking vehicles on their premises. 

Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar passed the order after hearing a writ petition challenging the GO filed by a law student Ramavath Prem Kumar from Hayathngar of Rangareddy district. The judge instructed the Principal Secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development to convey to owners of stand-alone cinema theatres to ensure that parking fee was not collected from persons parking vehicles on theatre premises, if they produce the movie tickets. 

The judge observed that prima facie the GO appeared to be in contravention of Section 176 (6) of the Telangana Municipalities Act-2019. The GO was also in violation of the law laid down by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2023, the judge said. The judge noted that despite being given adequate time, the respondents in the petition did not file their counter affidavits in the writ petition.