SC to listen to Centre’s plea looking for switch of on-line gaming legislation challenges

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to listen to the Centre’s plea to switch petitions difficult the constitutionality of the brand new legislation banning on-line cash gaming from a number of excessive courts to the apex courtroom.

Gaming firms have filed writ petitions earlier than the excessive courts of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Delhi.

“Union has filed a transfer plea… the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act has been challenged before three high courts. If it can be listed on Monday (8 September) since it’s listed for interim orders before the Karnataka high court,” the counsel representing the Centre advised the courtroom.

The plea was talked about earlier than the Chief Justice B.R. Gavai-led bench, which directed it to be listed earlier than the Justice J.B. Pardiwala-led bench on 8 September.

Justice Pardiwala’s bench had earlier heard challenges associated to the 28% items and companies tax (GST) on on-line gaming for a number of months and had reserved its judgment.

To ensure, the Karnataka excessive courtroom has additionally mounted 8 September to listen to petitions difficult the brand new legislation.

On Tuesday, the Madhya Pradesh excessive courtroom’s two-judge bench denied an enchantment looking for an injunction towards the Union authorities notifying and imposing the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which, in August, banned all on-line video games involving monetary transactions in India.

The petition was filed by Clubboom11 Sports & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, a Gwalior-based on-line gaming firm registered two years in the past, which argued “constitutional infirmity” within the Act.

During the listening to, solicitor common Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, argued that appeals pending earlier than the Karnataka and Delhi excessive courts must be clubbed and transferred to the Supreme Court, fairly than being heard individually.

On the identical day, the Delhi excessive courtroom, in a petition filed by Bagheera Carrom OPC Pvt. Ltd, took an identical stance.

On 30 August, the Karnataka excessive courtroom’s single-judge bench additionally declined to remain the notification of the Act.

Mehta knowledgeable the courts that the Centre was within the strategy of notifying the legislation. Once notified, the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) will arrange an authority to advertise e-sports and informal video games that don’t contain cash, and implement guidelines to implement the legislation on the bottom.

The Centre is predicted to file its response within the Supreme Court by 8 September, opposing interim reduction—together with a request for a one-week discover previous to enforcement—sought by the web cash gaming business.

The authorized disputes comply with a fast sequence of occasions in August. Within 5 days, the Union Cabinet accredited and handed the legislation prohibiting the operation of any on-line sport involving financial transactions.

Union info expertise minister Ashwini Vaishnaw justified the transfer, citing years of analysis exhibiting how platforms comparable to Dream11, RummyCulture, My11Circle, and Mobile Premier League promoted playing and cash laundering.

The ban has already hit the business arduous. Mint reported on 1 September that firms, together with Games24x7, MPL, and Baazi Games, have introduced layoffs, with others anticipated to comply with.

Earlier, business associations warned Union residence minister Amit Shah on 19 August that the blanket ban might threaten over 200,000 jobs throughout greater than 400 firms.

The Centre, nonetheless, has stood its floor. On 23 August, MeitY secretary S. Krishnan advised Mint that the federal government has “followed all constitutional requirements to frame the law and is ready for any legal challenges mounted against it”.

This just isn’t the primary time the Supreme Court has consolidated petitions within the on-line gaming area. In 2024, the apex courtroom transferred 27 writ petitions pending throughout 9 state excessive courts difficult the 28% GST on on-line real-money gaming to itself for listening to.