On Thursday, the Bombay court sought the response of the Maharashtra government on a plea seeking a declaration that “Ludo can be a game of chance and not a game of skill.”
A divisional bench of Justice SS Shinde and Justice Abhay Ahuja, was there to hear this petition.
The Petition was filed by Keshav Ramesh Muley, a senior office-bearer of the organization “Maharashtra Navnirman Sena”, also sought registration of the case against Chasgrail Private Ltd., which owns the mobile application “Ludo Supreme App”, on the bottom that it is promoting gambling.
Muley had, initially, approached the Girgaon Police office with a complaint against Cashgrail. But when his First Information Report [FIR] was not registered by the police, He filed a complaint under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure before the extra Chief Metropolitan Magistrate [ACMM] at Girgaon, Mumbai seeking an investigation into his complaint.
Under his complaint, it pointed out the provisions of the Indian Penal Code [IPC] Section 420 [cheating] and the MPG Act. The ACMM rejected the complaint by observing that the provisions stated of the MPG act won’t apply as the game “Ludo may be a game of skill and not a game of chance”.
Mr. Muley then approached the state High Court, through Advocate Nikhil Mengde assailing the order through the Current petition. He submitted that a clear stage of a 3-year-old winning the sport couldn’t be discounted and hence, Ludo can’t be considered a game of mere skill but maybe a game of chance.
Muley contended that the provisions of the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling [MPG] act apply to the sport if it’s being played at stake. The prize isn’t some notional or fictional winning but it is that real-time currency of import, plea stated.
“The entire game is totally an uncertain future event and therefore the occurrence or non-occurrence of a selected result’s absolutely supported luck, or in other words supported chance”. The plea stated.