Hon’ble High Court of Delhi consisting of division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the Centre on a matter pleading ban on gambling and betting sites.
The public interest litigation filed by Avinash Mehrotra seeks direction from the HC to the Ministry of Information Technology to prevent online gambling websites.
The Delhi HC has asked the centre to file the reply in the matter.
Earlier also one similar plea was filed regarding ban on online gambling wherein the Hon’ble HC had disposed off the petition directing the government to take necessary steps.
However, the Delhi govt. and the Centre both failed to regulate or ban online gambling therefore this second petition has been filed in the form of PIL on the same subject matter.
The PIL seeks direction from the court to Ministry of Information Technology to exercise its powers under sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and control the online gambling and betting activities.
According to Business World, the petition states, “It is submitted that all these activities, though expressly prohibited by law, are being carried out because of a lack of enforcement of the laws in question. Thus, despite being per se illegal these gambling websites are being permitted to operate and drive normal people towards economic and financial as well as social ruination.”
It further states, “Online gambling by itself is an addictive activity, and those currently addicted to this activity, are not in the correct frame of mind, to take steps to protect themselves and the public at large from this menace.”