Tamil Nadu legislature has sat on appeal over SC judgments by banning online rummy and poker, Mukul Rohatgi argues before Madras High Court

Tamil Nadu legislature has passed a law banning online rummy and poker, despite Supreme Court rulings that they are games of skill. Senior counsels argued before the Madras High Court that the State had no competence to enact such a law, and that the law was contrary to the fundamental right to carry on a trade or business. They also argued that the State could not cite public health or betting/gambling as reasons to ban online rummy, and that MEITY had already come up with rules to regulate online gaming companies. Hearing adjourned to June 19. TN legislature passes law banning online rummy/poker, despite SC ruling they are games of skill. Senior counsels argue State has no competence to enact such law, and it violates fundamental right to carry on trade/business. MEITY has rules to regulate online gaming companies. Hearing adjourned to June 19.

The Tamil Nadu legislature has sat on appeal over a series of judgments passed by the Supreme Court over the last 50 years by banning online rummy and poker through the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi argued before the Madras High Court on Thursday.

Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, he also questioned the competence of the Tamil Nadu Assembly to enact a law on a subject which, according to him, fell only within the purview of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).

“The sole question in this case is whether online rummy and poker are games of chance or games of skill. It has been held over the last 50 years that they are games of skill. The fact that rummy is a game of skill is, today, cast in stone. That is the law declared under Article 141 (law declared by the Supreme Court) of the Constitution,” he said.

It has been held specifically that offline/physical rummy was a game of skill and the dictum would apply equally to online rummy. “There is no scope to reinvent the wheel,” he said, adding that there was absolutely no difference between physical and online rummy like how there was no difference between physical and online hearing of cases by courts of law.

Mr. Rohatgi said the States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka had already made an attempt to ban online rummy and poker through a legislative process, but those attempts were thwarted by the High Courts in all three States by relying upon the consistent stand taken by the Supreme Court on the issue. Now, Tamil Nadu had come up with another law.

Pointing out that the only reason given by the State to target online rummy was nothing but the shuffling of cards by a Random Number Generator (RNG) software, Mr. Rohatgi said. RNG was being used even by the Income Tax Department for random scrutiny of returns filed by assessees.

Further, since the State had relied upon Entries 1 (public order), 6 (public health) and 34 (betting and gambling) of List II (State list) of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution for enacting the law, the senior counsel wondered how could suicide committed by a few gamers become an issue affecting public order.