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After woman dies by suicide, Tamil Nadu forms panel to regulate online rummy
The announcement came days after a 29-year-old woman in Chennai died by suicide after she allegedly lost around ₹10 lakhs in online rummy.
The Tamil Nadu government on Friday announced setting up of a four-member panel headed by retired Madras high court judge Justice K Chandru to provide suggestions within two weeks for promulgation of an ordinance to regulate online rummy.
The announcement came days after a 29-year-old woman in Chennai died by suicide after she allegedly lost around ₹10 lakhs in online rummy.
The committee, the state government in a release said, will comprise Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Madras) expert Sankararaman, Lakshmi Vijayakumar, psychiatrist and founder of SNEHA – an NGO for prevention of suicide – and additional director-general of police Vinit Dev Wankhede,
The panel will examine the adverse effects of online rummy such as financial loss, suicides and need to regulate advertisements promoting online rummy which impacts society.
“Based on the report of the committee, an ordinance would be promulgated considering the need to find a solution to this issue at once. It would be a model for other States to follow,” the release said.
A meeting chaired by chief minister M K Stalin on Thursday with governmentofficials had taken note of the growing addiction for the game and recent suicides after people lost their money, people familiar with the matter said.
The 29-year-old woman in Chennai, who died by suicide on June 6, had gotten addicted to online rummy during the Covid-19 lockdown, and had borrowed money from her sisters and sold some of her jewellery to play the game, police said. She was unable to repay the debt after she lost the game, police said.
The previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government, under former chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami, in November 2000 had amended a 90-year-law to ban online games, including rummy and poker.
The ban was overturned by Madras high court in August 2021 after a batch of petitions challenged the amendment.
The Stalin-led government moved the Supreme Court against the high court order. The case is yet to be heard.
Palaniswami has been critical of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government for failing to ban online gaming.
Anbumani Ramadoss, president of Paattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) – an NDA ally – in a statement on Wednesday said no deaths were reported during the ban but close to 22 people died by suicide in 10 months ever since the same was lifted.
After Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Karnataka became the third state in India last September to ban online gaming by bringing in a legislation.
The legislations enacted by Karnataka and Kerala have, however, also been struck down by the respective high courts.
Cyber law advocate N Karthikeyan told HT that a strong ordinance can be passed until the SC says something even as relevant stakeholders have the liberty to challenge Tamil Nadu’s move.
“We can form this committee and come out with a well drafted law but implementation will be difficult because the apps are available on PlayStore and App Store so we cannot remove that using a state law,” said Karthikeyan.
“We need a central law to give an explicit ban or they can regulate it like how China is regulating the online space. Even when this law was passed in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka and when stakeholders challenged it, the court has said you cannot ban it because Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution permits each and every person to do free trade and business. So the state governments can together pressurise the central government to pass a central law. Either they need to amend Article 246 and bring in gambling into a union or concurrent list instead of it being in the state list. And besides the government, family, society, education institutions also have a shared responsibility of education youngsters in cyber de-addiction.”
