NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice in Tamil Nadu government's petition challenging Madras HC's order that struck down the state's ban on online gaming such as rummy and poker.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Vikram Nath deferred the plea that challenged the Madras HC's August 3, 2021 order for 10 weeks and also asked the two parties in the suit - the Tamil Nadu government and Junglee Games Private Limited - to file their replies within four weeks.
A bench of the then Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had struck down Part II of Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 that amended the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act, 1930 to ban playing of games such as rummy and poker on cyberspace by declaring it as unconstitutional.
"There appears to be a little doubt that both rummy and poker are games of skill as they involve considerable memory, working out of percentages, the ability to follow the cards on the table and constantly adjust to the changing possibilities of the unseen cards," the Madras HC had observed.
The Court had although termed the state's online gaming ban "excessive and disproportionate" but had granted liberty to the State to pass any other legislation, without any lacunae. It had also added that nothing in the judgement would prevent the state from introducing an appropriate legislation that conforms to the Constitutional principles of propriety.