Chennai: Madras high court has refused to interfere with the show-cause notices issued by Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA) against gaming platforms for alleged violation of restrictions imposed by the state against online real money games. The restrictions include mandatory Aadhaar-based verification of players and a complete prohibition on login or games between midnight and 5am.
When the pleas challenging the restriction came up for hearing on Friday, the gaming platforms contended that it is unfair on the part of the gaming authority to issue the show-cause notices while the petitions are being heard by the court. To this, a division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar observed that so far, the court has not issued any interim stay against the state. Therefore, there is no impediment for the authority to act, the court added and refused to interfere.
Later, responding to the petitions challenging the restrictions, advocate-general P S Raman argued that Aadhaar-based verification was made mandatory only because Aadhaar has a two-step verification process. All other modes have only one-step verification; only with Aadhaar must a player produce a copy of the document and verify the same through an OTP sent to their registered mobile number, he said.
As to the use of other documents such as passports and driving licences, Raman said minors can easily misuse the process by producing a copy of their parents’ documents. But with Aadhaar, it cannot be done as it must be verified through OTP. He further pointed out the first bench of the court had already upheld the right of the state govt to regulate age, time, and monetary limits for playing real money online games.