BENGALURU | September 11, 2026 — The Karnataka High Court has quashed notices directing multiplexes and other cinema halls to collect a 2% cess on movie ticket prices, after the state government acknowledged that no official Gazette notification had brought the underlying law into force.
Justice H.T. Narendra Prasad issued the order while hearing a writ petition filed by the Multiplex Association of India, PVR INOX Ltd and PVR INOX shareholder Shantanu Pai. The petition challenged a circular issued by the Labour Commissioner on August 29, which required cinemas to collect the cess from September 1, 2026.
The proposed levy was linked to the Karnataka Film and Cultural Workers Social Security and Welfare Act, 2024. According to the report placed before the court, the cess was intended to provide funding for welfare schemes for cinema and cultural workers.
During the hearing, the state government’s counsel told the court that the Labour Commissioner’s order had been withdrawn. The counsel also clarified that no official notification had so far been issued to bring the legislation into effect.
The petitioners argued that the law required the government to publish a separate notification specifying when it would come into force. Their counsel, senior advocate Uday Holla, submitted that the notices demanding payment treated the Act as operational even though the required notification had not been issued.
The court accepted the government counsel’s statement that no Gazette notification had been published to enforce the law. On that basis, it cancelled the notices issued to multiplexes in connection with cess collection.
The decision means that the notices requiring multiplexes to collect the additional 2% charge under the August 29 circular are no longer in force. The order, as reported, concerns the legal validity of the collection direction and does not record a finding that the welfare objective behind the proposed legislation is invalid.
The state’s next step would be to follow the statutory process for bringing the 2024 Act into force, including the issuance of any notification required under the legislation. Until then, the cancelled notices cannot be used as the basis for demanding the proposed cess from multiplexes.
