Tamil Nadu Government, Governor set for fresh clash on online gambling ban

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government is set for a fresh clash with the Raj Bhavan over its proposal to ban online gambling that has claimed the lives of many persons, who fell into a debt trap playing rummy virtually.

On Wednesday, Governor R N Ravi returned to the Government the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill adopted by the Legislative Assembly last year. He had apparently questioned the competence of the State Legislature to pass such a legislation and cited that the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s had in January brought out draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Liability and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

However, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday evening decided that it would reintroduce the Bill in the upcoming Budget session of the Legislative Assembly for re-adoption and sent it back to the Governor for his assent. This would be the second time in the history of the House that a Bill returned by the Governor would be readopted. Last year, in a historic decision, the DMK Government had reintroduced and readopted a Bill seeking exemption from NEET for admission to MBBS / BDS courses after Ravi returned it. Thereafter the Governor forwarded it to the President for her consideration. 

Briefing journalists after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister S Regupathy said it was decided to reintroduce the Bill. “The Governor said the Assembly does not have legislative competence. We will tell him it has the legislative competence and send the Bill back to him,” he said. 

The Minister, responding to a question if Tamil Nadu alone could impose a ban on online gambling, said it had to be banned across the country and the State could be a pioneer. 

Regupathy pointed out that when a Bill is readopted and sent to the Governor a second time, he had no option but to grant assent for it. 

Published on: Thursday, March 09, 2023, 10:55 PM IST