JUDGMENT :

Dr. Vineet Kothari, J.

(Prayer: Writ Appeals filed against the order of this Court in W.P. Nos. 34217, 34218, 34219, 34220, 34216 of 2015 dated 28.02.2020.)

1. Whether the “online booking charges” charged by a Cinema Hall Owner besides the “cost of ticket” for entry into the cinema hall and enjoy the entertainment in the form of a movie, is a part of taxable receipt by the Cinema Owner for the purposes of the Tamil Nadu Entertainment Tax Act, 1939, is the question which arises for our consideration in the present intra court appeals, filed against the order of the learned Single Judge dated 28 February 2020, by which the learned Single Judge was pleased to dismiss the Writ Petitions of the Cinema Owner, M/s.SPI Cinemas Pvt. Ltd., popularly known as 'PVR Cinemas', and hold that the entire price of the ticket when booked online through the Web Portal of the cinema owner by the customer would be exigible to the Entertainment Tax under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Entertainment Tax Act.

2. The Tamil Nadu Entertainment Tax Act, 1939, is a pre-Independence Legislation, enacted at the point of time in the history when nobody had even conceived the idea of Internet, Web Portal o