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Synopsis

A plea has been moved by an NGO namely Social Organization for Creating Humanity (SOCH) before the Delhi High Court challenging constitutional and legislative validity of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023 in relation to online gaming.

The division bench comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula posted the matter for hearing on July 13 and also sought assistance of Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma in the matter.

The Noida-based NGO has filed the present plea through Advocate Sakshi Tikmany.

The petitioner-NGO stated, “The Impugned Rules seek to create a framework for regulating online gaming, including online real money games by classifying them as ‘intermediaries’ under the IT Act, 2000 and imposing several due diligence requirements and compliances such as Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, appointment of grievance redressal and nodal officers, taking registration and membership of Self-Regulatory Body (SRB), and tasks these SRBs with certifying certain categories of online real money games as permissible online games etc”.

The NGO stated that there should not only be “effective control and regulation” of online games and gambling or betting activities but there should also be an “effective mechanism” for such regulatory measure and that the same conform to the four corners of powers granted under the Constitution and other legislative provisions.

The plea stated that the Union government’s enactment of Rules has led to “regulatory confusion and dual set of laws relating to online gaming”. It also stated that presently, there is no clarity on whether the Centre or State laws should be followed with respect to online gaming.

“The Impugned Rules traverse beyond the rule-making powers granted to it by the parent legislation, i.e., the IT Act and wrongly classifies online gaming platforms as ‘intermediaries’, going beyond the definition and scope of the parent legislation. Section 79(2)(c)r/w Section 89(2)(z) of the IT Act allows the central government to prescribe guidelines for due diligence requirements of intermediaries which do not initiate the transmission, select the receiver of the transmission or select or modify the information contained in the transmission”, it said.

“The Government cannot abdicate its role of overseeing and monitoring of the online gaming sector and outsource its responsibility to private bodies”, the plea stated.

Case Title: Social Organization for Creating Humanity (SOCH) v. Union of India