Supreme Court transfers on-line cash gaming legislation challenges to itself

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday transferred all petitions difficult the constitutionality of the brand new legislation banning on-line cash gaming from a number of excessive courts to itself.

A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Ok.V. Viswanathan allowed the Centre’s plea to membership the petitions, which had been filed earlier than the excessive courts of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Delhi.

The bench clarified that each one proceedings pending earlier than the excessive courts concerning challenges to the brand new legislation will now be heard solely by the apex court docket, and the excessive courts won’t entertain any petition associated to this.

Both the Centre and the petitioners had requested the highest court docket to membership and switch all associated circumstances from the excessive courts. Now the Supreme Court will determine the constitutional validity of the gaming legislation.

Solicitor common Tushar Mehta instructed the court docket that the authorized points and precedents cited earlier than the excessive courts had already been extensively argued earlier than Justice Pardiwala’s bench within the case on the 28% GST levy on on-line gaming, the place the order has been reserved.

“This Act has been challenged before three high courts. If the cases are brought here, it would save time,” Mehta had instructed the court docket.

Last week, the Madhya Pradesh excessive court docket rejected an attraction by Clubboom11 Sports & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, a Gwalior-based gaming agency, in search of a keep on the federal government’s notification of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025.

The Act, handed in August, prohibits all on-line video games involving financial transactions. Similar petitions had been additionally filed earlier than the Karnataka and Delhi excessive courts, together with one by Bagheera Carrom OPC Pvt. Ltd., however neither court docket granted interim aid.

Mehta instructed the courts that after the legislation is notified, the ministry of electronics and data expertise (MeitY) will set up an authority to advertise e-sports and informal video games with out financial stakes, whereas implementing restrictions on money-based video games.

The authorized tussle follows a speedy sequence of occasions in August, when the Union Cabinet cleared and handed the laws inside 5 days. IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw defended the transfer, citing years of analysis linking platforms akin to Dream11, RummyCulture, My11Circle, and Mobile Premier League to playing and cash laundering.

The ban has already hit the trade. As Mint reported on 1 September, corporations together with Games24x7, MPL, and Baazi Games have begun layoffs, with extra anticipated. Industry associations had earlier instructed Union dwelling minister Amit Shah that the blanket ban might threaten over 200,000 jobs throughout greater than 400 firms.

Despite trade pushback, the Centre has stood agency. On 23 August, MeitY secretary S. Krishnan instructed Mint that the federal government had “followed all constitutional requirements to frame the law and is ready for any legal challenges mounted against it.”

This will not be the primary time the Supreme Court has consolidated disputes within the sector. In 2024, it transferred 27 writ petitions from 9 excessive courts difficult the 28% GST on on-line real-money gaming to itself.