Madras HC offers no relief for online gaming firms against timing restrictions, Aadhaar mandate
The companies challenged the regulations prohibiting people from playing these games between midnight and 5 am and making Aadhaar verification mandatory.
Madras High Court (File)
CHENNAI: Even as it refused to grant any interim relief to online gaming platforms, the Madras High Court directed the Union and State governments to file counter to the batch of petitions they moved challenging the regulations imposed by the State government.
The companies challenged the regulations prohibiting people from playing these games between midnight and 5 am and making Aadhaar verification mandatory.
A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar posted the matter after two weeks for further arguments, and directed both governments to file counter affidavits.
Appearing for the platforms, Junglee Games, Playing Games 24*7 and others, senior counsels Mukul Rohatgi and Sajan Poovayya cited several Supreme Court judgments and submitted that the court has held that rummy and poker were not games of chance but of skill whether it is physical or online game.
The counsels questioned the government’s rationale in prohibiting online games between midnight and 5 am but allowing clubs where rummy is being played physically to operate round the clock. They also argued that online gaming was governed by the IT Act of 2000 and hence the State cannot prohibit the platforms.
The advocates also cited the Supreme Court’s 2018 order in KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India to argue that the Constitutional bench held that mandating Aadhaar verification was only limited to government subsidy programmes.
Appearing for the Rummy Players' Association, senior counsel V Raghavachari submitted that the State cannot prohibit the players halfway through the game between midnight and 5 am. “Can anyone prohibit Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli from playing their game for a certain period of time,” wondered the counsel and sought to quash the regulations.
Countering them, Advocate General (AG) PS Raman said the regulations were brought in because vulnerable people were losing their properties due to online gaming. The timing restrictions were brought in based on expert opinion that youth were getting addicted to gaming mostly between that time.
