ALL KERALA ONLINE LOTTERY DEALERS ASSOCIATION versus STATE OF KERALA & ORS.

Citation: [2015] 10 S.C.R. 880 · Decided: 05-11-2015 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: H.L. DATTU · Disposal: Dismissed

Cited by 1 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

(2015] 10 S.C.R. 880 
A 
ALL KERALA ONLINE LOTTERY DEALERS 
B 
c 
ASSOCIATION 
v. 
STATE OF KERALA & ORS. 
(Civil Appeal No. 3518 of2007) 
NOVEMBER 05, 2015 
[H.L. DATTU, CJI., R.K. AGRAWAL AND 
ARUN MISHRA, JJ.] 
Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998: s.5 - Ban on online 
lottery-Notification dated 27.01.2005 permitting the sale of 
paper lotteries organized, conducted or promoted by every 
State Government including the State of Kera/a while 
D maintaining the prohibition imposed on the sale of 
computerized and on-line lottery tickets organized, 
conducted or promoted by every State Government and 
declaring the territory of the State of Kera/a to be online, 
internet and computerized lotteries free zone- Whether the 
E State Government can discriminate between the paper lottery 
and on line lottery- Held: State Government is competent to 
prohibit a particular type of lottery- That means a particular 
lottery can be the subject matter of prohibition - In other words, 
all types of lotteries need not be prohibited -
r.3 of Rules, 
F 
2()_10 makes clear that online lottery is treated as separate 
lottery from paper lottery and it is a class in itself - Thus, 
State Government can separately ban the sale of online 
lotteries as on/ine lottery is a particular class of lottery, 
G different and distinct from paper lotteries- State Government 
is, therefore, empowered uls. 5 to prohibit the sale of on line 
lotteries or internet lotteries in its State - Constitution of India, 
1950 -Articles 246 - Lotteries (Regulation) Rules, 2010 -
rr.2(e), 3. 
H 
880 
ALL KERALAONLINE LOTTERY DEALERS ASSN. v. 
881 
STATE OF KERALA & ORS. 
Dismissing the appeals and writ petition, the Court 
A 
HELD: 1. The relevant provisions of the Lotteries 
(Regulation) Act, 1998 clearly demonstrate that even though 
all types of lotteries are meant to be regulated by the said 
Act, on line lotteries were not under the contemplation of the 
B 
Central Government at the time when the Act came into force. 
The online lotteries became popular in India recently and in 
any case after the enforcement of the Act and that is why the 
Government of India while framing the 201 O Rules specifically 
defined 'online lotteries'. In this background, the Scheme C 
of the Act clearly show that the Government at that stage 
was concerned with paper lotteries of all kinds. With regard 
to the contention regarding the function of the on line lottery; 
any type of manipulation can be done in the printing of tickets 
at the terminal. The customer cannot know whether the D 
ticket is printed at the terminal based on the command from 
the central server or not. The State of Sikkim does not have 
any control over its thousands of terminals all over India. As 
per Section 4(h) of the Act, the draw should be held once in 
a week. It means a fortune seeker, after purchasing the E 
ticket, will get a week's cooling time to wait for the result of 
the draw. But, under the scheme of on line lotteries, a number 
of lotteries run simultaneously. So, by holding several 
lotteries, there can be several draws with a gap of few F 
minutes in a day and the gullible will remain glued and there 
is every likelihood of purchase of tickets repeatedly, till all 
his savings are exhausted. So, if the Government takes a 
decision in public interest to prohibit on line lotteries, this 
Court should not interfere with the said decision unless G 
there are compelling grounds. While interpreting a Statute 
of this nature meant to suppress the mischief of gambling, 
this Court should accept the concept of purposive 
interpretation and if possible save the notification intending 
H 
882 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2015] 10 S.C.R. 
A to save the people from the vice of gambling. It is common 
case that lottery is a species of gambling. Gambling is 
considered as a pernicious vice by all civilized societies 
from time immemorial. [Paras 24-26] [918-H; 919-A-F] 
B 
Words and Phrases, Butterworlhs, 3rd Edition at 
page 71 - referred to. 
2. Article 246(1) of the Constitution of India deals 
with exclusive power of the Parliament to make laws with 
C respect to matters enumerated in List I (Union List) in 
the Seventh Schedule. As per Article 246(2), Parliament 
and the Legislature of any State also have power to ma.ke 
laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in 
List Ill (Concurrent List) in the Seventh Schedule. The 
o Legislature of the State has, however, exclusive power 
to make laws with re

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