New Delhi, Nov. 3 -- The Supreme Court on Monday sought response of the Centre on a plea seeking directions to the government to prohibit online gambling and betting platforms that allegedly operate under the guise of social and e-sports games.
A bench of justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan took note of the submissions of lawyer Virag Gupta, counsel for the petitioner, and said that it will hear the plea along with other pending ones on Tuesday.
The bench asked the government to take action on the details about online gaming apps given by the petitioner.
Gupta submitted details of 2,000 betting and gambling apps to the Centre.
The top court was hearing the plea filed by Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC) and Shourya Tiwari that urged it to direct the government to clamp down on the proliferation of betting and gambling applications, which, they claimed, were inflicting widespread social and economic harm across the country.
The bench has already listed a batch of transferred petitions for hearing on November 4. They challenge online gaming law which prohibits "online money games" and bars banking services and advertising related to them.
On October 17, the bench said that the plea of CASC raises an "important issue" and asked Gupta to serve a copy of the plea to the lawyer representing the government.
"It is an important issue. You serve one copy to him. Let him look into it. He will come back to us," the bench told advocate Gupta, who was appearing for the petitioners.
During the hearing, Gupta told the bench that the plea was regarding protection of 15 crore children who were suffering because of the "vacuum" in the current law.
He referred to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.