Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the State government on a petition filed by a poker club after it was denied clearance by Surat police. The police had said poker is a gambling game and not one of skill.
Petitioner AAA Gaming Pvt. Ltd. told the court that it had made a representation before the Surat Commissioner of Police on January 17 to start a poker club in the city’s Umra locality. On January 27, the police commissioner denied permission to the club saying “poker is a game of chance and not skill which allows gambling in game”.
The single-judge bench of Justice C.L. Soni issued notices to the State government, the Surat Commissioner of Police and the police inspector in charge of Umra police station.
Based on a submission made by the petitioner’s lawyer, Maulin Pandya, that his client should be provided with interim relief, the court issued a notice for the same and posted the matter for further hearing on February 21. The petitioner said the police commissioner rejected their application to start a poker club under Umra police station limits, by simply making a one-line observation that poker is a game of chance and not skill.
The petitioner said the view is without legal base, and there was no detailed deposition on how the police commissioner reached the conclusion when there are grounds to consider poker as a game of skill. It further said section 13 of the Gujarat Prevention of Gambling Act exempts a game of skill from the purview of gambling.
Notably, a similar petition was filed earlier by the Indian Poker Association last year when police acted against the club, saying it indulged in gambling. The HC is yet to give its judgement on this petition. Both petitions have claimed that high courts in Karnataka and West Bengal have already endorsed poker as a game of skill. — PTI
