The DMK government’s legislation to ban online gaming has hit a road-block with Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, raising queries and concerns over whether it would withstand legal scrutiny or not! It is another instance of the cold war between Governor Ravi and the DMK government. The ruling party has accused the Governor of acting like a BJP functionary and trying to stop the state government’s projects and schemes.

On several issues, the DMK government led by Chief Minister MK Stalin and the Governor have been at loggerheads. The legislation passed by the State Assembly has been lying with the Governor for some time. Recently, Law Minister S Regupathy sought an appointment with the Governor to request him to provide his approval to the State legislation.

Even as there was no sign of an appointment, the Governor granted an audience to the AIADMK leader Edappadi Palaniswamy, who touched upon the legislation among other things in his meeting, as revealed in his interaction with the media persons after the meeting at Raj Bhavan.

The Governor sent a communication to the State Government pointing out such several issues, which he said had been flagged by the High Court while quashing a similar Bill passed by the earlier AIADMK government.

Promptly, the state law minister sent a rebuttal to the Governor within 24 hours, specifically responding to the Governor’s queries. In reply, the DMK minister pointed out that regarding the question as to whether there was no difference maintained between game of chance and skill, the new legislation had clearly clarified that it sought to clamp down on the game of chance, as it led to irregularities in the online mode.

Again, the minister countered the Governor, who asked whether it would be legal to clamp down on both physical and online gaming, by stating that the legislation had maintained a difference between the two, and had merely sought to put down online gaming.

Similarly, on the issue of proportional ban raised by the High Court, the minister said the question too, had been addressed in the new bill, which sought only a proportional ban by curbing only online gaming. The minister, after discussions with the state law department, had sent the replies and the communication through a messenger, just as the Governor had sought to do so.