MUMBAI: The Competition Appellate Tribunal has issued notice for enquiring into the anti-competitive activities of YRF blocking theatres for release of ‘Jab tak hai jaan‘ during Diwali while releasing ‘Ek Tha Tiger‘ during Eid.

In a statement, Ajay Devgn Films said the Tribunal ‘has seen merit in our case‘.

The Competition Appellate Tribunal did not provide an interim relief, ADF said, "In view of YRF‘s own statement that only 821 theatres which have already executed agreement with it for showing Jab Tak Hai Jaan on Diwali in comparison to 1407 single screens for Ek Tha Tiger."

This leaves the balance screens which have not executed agreements with YRF to show "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" till date to be free to exhibit "Son of Sardaar" without any tie in arrangement of YRF. This would include 586 single screens which had earlier shown "Ek Tha Tiger".

The statement said, "Accordingly, we would now be approaching all theatres who have not executed any agreement for showing Jab Tak Hai Jaan for exhibiting our movie Son of Sardar. However, if the above facts are found to be false which would be proven through evidence after the release of the movie, we would not only continue to fight against YRF‘s anti-competitive activities on our own behalf but also on the behalf of the entire industry."

The Competition Commission of India had on 6 November said there was no contravention of the Competition Act with regard to the agreement between Yash Raj Films and single screen exhibitors with regard to the film ‘Ek Tha Tiger‘ starring Salman Khan.

The Commission had said the agreements entered into in July/August were not anti-competitive.