“Immediately after the High Court verdict, Chief Minister MK Stalin had instructed to frame new law banning online games by stating appropriate reasons and rules without any delay in the interest of public welfare. The new legislation would soon be enacted as per the instruction of the Chief Minister,” he said. 

Alleging that the previous AIADMK regime had enacted a law in haste on November 21, 2020, after Stalin, who was then the Leader of Opposition, urged the government to ban online games, Reghupathy said that though the Advocate General presented strong arguments before the court, the bench had passed a verdict striking downon the grounds that adequate reasons were not cited for banning the games and a blanket ban on online games could not be imposed without framing the regulations for such games. The same verdict had clarified that there was no ban on enacting new law with new regulations. “Since public welfare is very important, Stalin has instructed us to frame a new law covering all legal aspects without delay to ban online rummy,” the minister added. The previous AIADMK regime had passed a law banning online rummy following a series of suicides by gamers in the State.