Don’t Collect Entertainment Tax for Kochadaiiyaan: HC

Chennai, May 23: The Madras High Court has directed all theatre owners in the State not to collect entertainment tax from viewers of the much awaited Tamil feature film Kochadaiiyaan, starring Superstar Rajinikanth and Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone.

A vacation bench of Justices M M Sundresh and R Mahadevan gave the direction while passing interim orders on a public interest writ petition from advocate S Muthiah of Ernavur, on Thursday.

According to the petitioner, the TN government issued an order dated July 21, 2011, granting exemption from entertainment tax for films bearing Tamil names, old films, holders of copyright of Tamil films and old and new Tamil films which are in consonance with Tamil language and culture. Challenging this, the petitioner filed a writ petition and the High Court on April 10, 2013 granted an interim stay of the 2011 GO. Citing the stay order, the government refused exemption from entertainment tax for Tenaliraman and Yennamo Yedho. Challenging this, the producers moved the Madras High Court and the matter was pending. The TN government passed a GO on May 12 this year granting ET exemption to Kochadaiiyaan. It also issued a circular stating that the exemption granted is applicable only from the date of grant of exemption and not before that.

The petitioner contended that when the operation of the main 2011 GO had been stayed, the government could not grant exemption to Kochadaiiyaan. The authorities have no regard or respect for the order of the High Court and are liable to be punished under the Contempt of Court Act, the petitioner said and sought to quash the May 12 GO.

Passing an interim order on Thursday, the judge said that admittedly the exemption granted stands valid as of today. Therefore, the exhibitors cannot demand and collect ET from the public. “In such view of the matter, we pass an interim order directing the Commercial Tax and Registration department and the theatre owners not to collect any tax for which the exemption has been granted by the May 12 GO,” the bench said.

The bench also permitted the petitioner to file an application to implead all the exhibitors in the manner known to law. It made it clear that the price as fixed by the government alone should be charged and collected.