Poker – A Game of Skill Reiterates Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench

Jalpaiguri Circuit bench of Calcutta High Court
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  • Namita Ghosh October 1, 2019
  • 2 Minutes Read

The poker industry’s crusade to find legal acceptance across different states in India has been a long and arduous one. While these efforts have faced roadblocks in places like Gujarat and Delhi, West Bengal for one has taken a positive view of poker, its judiciary explicitly excluding poker from the gambit of games considered to be gambling.

So imagine the shockwaves that a recent raid by the Kolkata police at two poker clubs and the subsequent arrest of 14 people sent through the industry. Two days after the hugely disappointing incident, we received some very uplifting information. The Indian Poker Association (IPA) under the leadership of its secretary KN Suresh has been leading the legal crusade to get poker the legal acceptance it deserves. After inspiring victories at the Karnataka and Calcutta High Court`s, the IPA most recently was successful in obtaining another favorable judgment by Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench.

Hearing a case filed by the IPA that was stopped in conducting poker games at the Hotel Tourist Inn at Sevoke Road in Siliguri, the Jalpaiguri circuit bench of the Calcutta High Court on August 29 directed the police authorities not to interfere with the poker games being conducted inside the hotel. Reiterating that as per the provisions of the West Bengal Gambling and Prize Competition Act, 1957, poker does not fall under the ambit of gambling, the court clearly asserted that law enforcement cannot interfere in or disrupt any poker games being conducted by the club without a written complaint or a specific arrest warrant.

 

The Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench Ruling

In August, police had raided the Hotel Tourist Inn in Siliguri where poker was being conducted by the IPA. Objecting to the harassment of the IPA members and players, the Association filed a case in the Calcutta High Court.

Hearing the case, the single judge bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya in his order dated August 29, 2019 stated, “Since the game of poker ipso facto is not included within the purview of the West Bengal Gambling and Prize Competitions Act, 1957, without there being a specific complaint with regard to the petitioners resorting to gambling or other illegal activity in the name of poker, there cannot be any occasion for the police to interfere with such game.”

“Accordingly, WPA No. 394 of 2019 is disposed of by directing the respondents not to interfere with the games of poker going on between the members of the petitioner no. 1 at the rented room at the Hotel Tourist Inn at Sevoke Road in Siliguri, unless there is a specific complaint against the petitioners that they are resorting to gambling or undertaking any unlawful activity in the garb of the game of poker in the said room.”

 

IPA Secretary KN Suresh’s Legal Crusade

IPA secretary and poker player K.N. Suresh has been the flagbearer for poker in India and has fought relentlessly to remove the legal ambiguity surrounding the mind game in various states like Karnataka, Gujarat, and West Bengal.

KN Suresh
KN Suresh

KarnatakaOn October 8, 2013, Justice AS Bopanna of the Karnataka High Court while hearing Suresh’s writ petition had ruled that poker, if played as a game of skill, can be permitted in recreational clubs and no license is required for the same. Though the order had limited applicability in defining poker as a game of skill and allowed it to be played only for recreational purposes, it was a historical step in getting poker recognized as a game of skill and one that led to a thriving live poker scene in the Garden City for the next few years.

West Bengal – On July 2, 2015, while hearing a writ petition filed by IPA after the police visited their poker room at the Princeton Club in June, the Calcutta High Court passed an order directing the police and the other state authorities not to interfere in the poker games being conducted by the club. Suresh had referred to Section 2(1) (b) of The West Bengal Gambling and Prize Competitions Act, 1957 that excluded poker, rummy or nap from the ambit of gambling. Justice Dipankar Datta in his final order in the matter ruled that since the provisions of the mentioned Act, particularly the definition of gaming or gambling “reveal that poker is not included either in gaming or gambling and, anyone indulging in playing such game without indulging in any other overt act, which could be treated as amounting to an offence, the same does not attract police interference.” Like in Karnataka, this judgment too led to the mushrooming of several poker rooms in Kolkata.

Gujarat – This is the only state where IPA has not been successful (so far). In December 2017, Justice Rajesh H. Shukla of the High Court of Gujarat rejected the civil petition filed by Suresh and several others, deeming poker to be gambling. The matter is presently under appeal.

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