Online gaming companies question TNOGA’s imposition of Aadhaar verification, midnight ban

The Madras High Court on Wednesday (February 26, 2025) refrained from passing any kind of interim order on a batch of cases questioning the restrictions imposed by the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA).

The Madras High Court on Wednesday (February 26, 2025) refrained from passing any kind of interim order on a batch of cases questioning the restrictions imposed by the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA) that real money games (RMG) could not be played without Aadhaar verification through OTP and between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. Indian Standard Time (IST).

A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar said, they would prefer taking up the writ petitions, filed by a group of online gaming companies and an association of online gamers, for final disposal at the earliest than pass interim orders. They requested Advocate General P.S. Raman to ensure that a counter affidavit, on behalf of the State as well as the TNOGA, was filed within two weeks.

While Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Sajjan Poovayya represented the online gaming companies Play Games 24X7 Private Limited, Head Digital Works Private Limited, and Junglee Games India Private Limited, senior counsel V. Raghavachari represented E-Sports Players Welfare Association. The A-G argued for the State.

The gaming companies had urged the court to declare as unconstitutional Section 5(2) read with 14(1)(c) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act of 2022 since those provisions empowered the TNOGA to impose restrictions such as time, monetary, and age limits.

Since the TNOGA had exercised that power to frame the TNOGA (RMG) Regulations of 2025, the writ petitioners had insisted on declaring Regulation 4(iii) and 4(viii), which make Aadhaar verification mandatory for initial login and impose blank hours between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m., too as unconstitutional and illegal.

The petitioners had also sought a direction to the TNOGA to clarify Regulations 4(i), (ii) and (iv) to (vii), which deal with banning minors from playing RMG, making KYC verification mandatory, displaying pop-up caution messages regarding the addictive nature of the games, and fixing monetary limits for each player.

They further wanted the TNOGA to grant them sufficient time to implement the 2025 regulations, which had been published in the Tamil Nadu government gazette on February, after the authority clarified multiple doubts with respect to them.