The constitutional challenge to the Telangana Gaming Amendment Act, 2017 (“Amendment Act“) came for hearing today in the High Court of Telangana before a bench comprising of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy. Telangana is the first state to ban all kinds of gaming for stakes through this Amendment Act.

During the hearing, the State Government counsel informed the bench that it has filed a transfer petition to the Supreme Court to tag it along with appeals by the government of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Similar laws were held to be unconstitutional by the High Courts of Madras and Karnataka promoting appeals by the respective State Governments.

In the transfer petition by the Telangana government, the Supreme Court bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudanshu Dhulia had issued notice on 2nd December, 2022. On this basis, the Telangana government accepted the submission of Telangana government and decided not to take up right until the Supreme Court decides on the transfer petition. Harin Raval, senior counsel who earlier appeared for the Telangana Government in the High Court represented Telangana before the Supreme Court

Senior counsel CV Mohan Reddy who appeared on behalf of the petitioners requested that the matter be taken up at least for interim relief as similar laws have been struck down by Karnataka and Madras High Courts and at present they are unable to do business in Telangana.

The High Court said that it may consider matter for interim relief on 31 January 2023 if the state government does not show any progress in the case before the Supreme Court. The cases before the Supreme Court will be tentatively  heard on 20 January 2022.

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer and V. Ramasubramanian in September issued notices on the plea of Karnataka government against the Karnataka High Court order striking down as unconstitutional the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act, 2021 that had banned online gaming including games of skill played for stakes. A week prior to this another bench of the Supreme Court issued notices in a similar appeal by the Tamil Nadu Government against an order of Madras High Court. The cases will be tagged along and will be listed anytime soon for hearing.