Tamil Nadu passes bill to ban online gambling, weeks after governor returns it
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin said the state has every right to “streamline, regulate and protect people” living within its jurisdiction.
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu assembly on Thursday passed the bill to ban online gambling for the second time in six months after governor RN Ravi sent it back earlier this month, questioning the state assembly’s competence to frame a law on the subject.
“I stand in this House with a heavy heart. 41 people have died after losing money in online gambling,” chief minister MK Stalin told the assembly on Thursday as he asked the assembly to pass the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill again. The assembly first passed the bill on October 19, 2022. The governor didn’t sign off on the bill for months and eventually on March 6, 2023, returned the bill.
Stalin said the state has every right to “streamline, regulate and protect people” living within its jurisdiction and cited Union minister Anurag Thakur’s written response to an unstarred question earlier this month that underlined the state’s powers to legislate on betting and gambling
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Stalin appealed to all parties to support the bill. “This government cannot function without a conscience,” he said, telling lawmakers to back the law to save lives.
“One more life should not be lost and one more family shouldn’t be out on the streets because of the evils of online gambling,” he said, adding that the government formulated suggestions based on a report submitted by a team led by retired justice K Chandru.
As Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) floor leader Nainar Nagendran asked the House not to attack the governor in course of the debate since he had given his reasons for returning the bill, speaker M Appavu intervened to underline that no legislator criticised the governor and a few words considered to be critical of Raj Bhavan were expunged.
Appavu, however, reminded the House that the governor, who returned the bill, did sign off on the ordinance on October 1. “Without changing a full stop or a comma, the House passed the same draft and sent it to the governor on October 19 (2022). Please keep that in mind,” the speaker said, the remark aimed at BJP’s Nagendran.
It was unjust of the governor to return the bill, said DMK’s organising secretary and water resources minister Durai Murugan. “The House has the right to criticise the governor,” Murugan said but added that the legislators were not exercising the right at the speaker’s request.
The government also stresses that Ravi’s predecessor Banwarilal Purohit approved a bill on the same topic sent to him by the then AIADMK government in November 2020. The bill was struck down by the high court on account of some provisions but no questions about the assembly’s legislative competence were raised.
