VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday refused to issue any interim order in the petition filed challenging the State government’s decision to hand over the online sale of movie tickets to the AP Film Development Corporation (APFDC). The Big Tree Entertainment Pvt Limited (BookMyShow) filed the petition challenging the government’s decision and the matter was taken up for hearing by the bench of Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice DVSS Somayajulu.
Appearing on behalf of the petitioner, senior counsel and Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi found fault with the government for making amendments to the law and issuing a GO giving rights to the APFDC for online sale of movie tickets.
He maintained that the APFDC will have a monopoly with the decision of the government and said though the petitioner had attended the meeting convened by the government ahead of taking the decision, the petitioner was not aware of it.
The petitioner urged the court to issue an interim order staying the government move. The bench refused to issue any interim order and said the petition would be heard along with similar petitions filed earlier. The bench said it would take a decision on issuing any stay order on the GO only after hearing the batch of petitions. It issued notices to the Principal Secretary (Home), Law Secretary, APTS to file their counter and posted the matter to June 27.