[TN Ordinance banning online games] Federation, gaming companies withdraw challenge before Madras High Court

The All India Gaming Federation and a bunch of gaming companies Wednesday withdrew their petitions filed before the Madras High Court challenging the Tamil Nadu (TN) government's recent ordinance banning all forms of online games [All India Gaming Federation v The state of Tamil Nadu and another]..The petitioners consented to withdraw their pleas after the Tamil Nadu government counsel, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal told the Court that the ordinance is yet to come into force because the date of coming into force of the same has not been notified yet. .A bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Krishnakumar granted the petitioners the liberty to approach the court again whenever such ordinance/ law comes into force.The Federation and the other petitioners had challenged the constitutional validity of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Ordinance, 2022.They had claimed that in India only 'games of chance' and not 'games of skill' can be banned. The petitioners said in their pleas that the TN government had wrongly classified games such as rummy and poker, which require skill, as games of chance. This was done so that such games could be banned through the new ordinance, they said.When the matter was taken up today, Sibal said that the petitioners had approached court with a "premature prayer," because in the absence of the ordinance being notified for implementation, they had no cause of action..Senior counsel Aryama Sundaram and Sajan Poovayya, who appeared for the Federation and one of the gaming companies, respectively, however, argued that they need not wait for the publication of the date on which the ordinance would come into effect..Sundaram argued that the ordinance had been notified and gazetted. He said that the argument by TN government that the ordinance is awaiting the Governor's assent merely meant that it was yet to decide on a date from which it comes into effect..Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for one of the petitioners, also told the court that even though the ordinance was yet to become an Act, gaming companies were already feeling the heat from State authorities."We are told that officers of the state are already carrying files and taking rounds of our offices asking us to stop," Rohatgi said..The petitioners urged the Court to defer the hearing by a week and to restrain the State from taking any punitive action against them till then. They also said that alternatively, the State government could make a statement saying that it will not take any punitive action against them until the law comes into force..The petitioners further argued that if the court did not intervene now, then there could be a situation where the State might suddenly notify the date for the ordinance to come into effect and begin immediate prosecution without giving them a chance to seek relief from the court..The High Court, however, asked how it could entertain a petition challenging something that was yet to be implemented. "What if this never becomes a permanent law?" the high court asked."Have you ever seen a case where a runner is declared as the winner even before the race has begun?" Justice Raja queried..He suggested that the petitioners wait for the Governor to grant his assent and publish the date on which the ordinance would come into effect.The petitioners then chose to withdraw the plea..Senior counsel Aryama Sundaram appeared for the All India Gaming Federation.Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, Sajan Poovayya, and Satish Parasaran appeared for the other petitioners.Senior counsel Kapil Sibal and TN Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram appeared for the respondent state.