
Aadhaar-based kyc verification and night ban for real money games: madras hc upholds tn regulations - the statesman
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Upholding the regulations brought in by the Tamil Nadu Government, making mandatory Aadhaar-based KYC verification and night ban on online Real Money Games (RMG), the Madras High Court on
Tuesday dismissed the petitions filed by online gaming companies, making it clear that the state was empowered to impose reasonable restrictions to protect the health and well-being of its
citizens. A Division Bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and K Rajasekar observed “This court feels that the submission of the state is not restricted to paternalism but goes a step further to
ensure the health of its citizens under Article 21 of the Constitution.” The court also rejected the contention that the regulations were violative of a person’s right to privacy, stating
that it comes with restrictions. Advertisement The state government had brought in the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022, following the rise
in suicides of those who had lost huge amounts of money in online gambling. Besides providing for the establishment of the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA), it has prohibited
minors under the age of 18 from playing Real Money Games (RMG), made Aadhaar KYC verification mandatory, and imposed a night ban on playing the games from midnight to 5 am. Further, Online
Gaming companies are required to display pop-up caution messages every half an hour when a player is playing for more than an hour. Advertisement Moreover, the Online Gaming companies have
been instructed to display continuously the message ‘Online Gaming is Addictive in Nature’ in the login page and fix daily, weekly and monthly monetary limit for each player and the amount
spent when he deposits money. Challenging these regulations, the gaming firms relied on the aspect of right to privacy and sought to declare the restrictions as arbitrary, illegal, and
unconstitutional. The petitioners claimed that it was the personal choice of the players to ruin their lives, and the state with a paternalistic view could not act as a stepfather to give
diktats as to how to live and decide on an individual’s health unless and otherwise it had a bearing on public health. They argued that since the government’s previous efforts to ban online
games were unsuccessful, it was resorting to doing so indirectly. Further, it was contended that the state government could not make laws under the Information Technology Act, a statute
passed by Parliament which had covered the apprehensions of the state. Instead of making Aadhaar mandatory, they wanted any document approved by the RBI for a KYC check. Countering the
arguments, the state submitted that it had a parental right over its people and took care of their health, and drew attention to the earlier orders of the court accepting the state’s power
to enact regulations on this aspect. On making Aadhaar mandatory, it was submitted that unlike other documents, Aadhaar had a two-step verification process which rules out the possibility of
misuse by minors. Advertisement