Kerala High Court strikes down Government Ban on Online Rummy [Read Order]

Kerala High Court - Online Rummy - Taxscan

In a major relief to the online skill-gaming industry, the Kerala High Court struck down the Kerala government notification pertaining to the ban on Online Rummy.

The petitioners, Head Digital Works Pvt. Ltd, Junglee Games India Pvt. Ltd, Play Games24X7 Pvt. Ltd, Gameskraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd, questioned the power of the Government to include the game “Online Rummy played for stakes” within the purview of the Kerala Gaming Act, 1960. The petitioners are all companies that are engaged in the business of developing and offering online games of skill in India and they are aggrieved by the notification issued by the Government, amending the exemption notification issued on September 30, 1976, under Section 14A of the Act.

The Single Judge Bench of Justice T.R. Ravi held that on the basis of the binding judgments of the Apex Court in Satyanarayana and K.R.Lakshmanan and the statutory provisions contained in Sections 3 and 14 of the Kerala Act that Rummy is a game of mere skill.

On the question of whether Rummy is a game in which ‘element of skill’ is more predominant than the ‘element of chance’, and can be exempted from the provisions of the Act only by means of notification, the Court held that even without a notification being issued under Section 14A, Rummy remains to be a ‘game of mere skill’.

“I hold that the “mere skill” contained in Section 14 and “any game the element of skill is more predominant than the element of chance” contained in Section 14A do not suggest that skill in playing a game is in any manner dependent on stakes. As such playing for stakes or playing not for stakes can never be a criterion to find out whether a game is a game of skill,” the Court added.

The court declared that notification by the government to be arbitrary, illegal, and in violation of Articles 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India since the notification has been issued in relation to a game that already stands exempted from the provisions of the Act under Section 14 of the Kerala Act and since the game does not come within the meaning of ‘gambling’ or ‘gaming’, providing a platform for playing the game, which is in the nature of the business cannot be curtailed. Notification is in effect a prohibition of Online Rummy played for stakes and not a reasonable restriction under Article 19(6) of the Constitution of India.

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