K'taka HC quashes Govt notification on online lottery

Bangalore, June 2 (UNI) The Karnataka High Court today quashed a Government notification, prohibiting online and internet lotteries conducted by Sikkim and Meghalaya.

Allowing the petitions filed by the two State lotteries and their distributors, Mr Justices R Gururajan and C R Kumaraswamy quashed the impugned notification and observed that the judgment was to be understood in the context of facts placed before the court and not as ever prohibiting the State from banning lotteries in accordance with law.

The petitioners had challenged the validity and constitutionality of the notification issued by the Karnataka Government on July 24, 2004, under section five of the Lottery (Regulation) Act, 1998, declaring the State to be a 'free zone' from online and internet lotteries. They contended that the notification was violative of Article 19 of the Constitution.

The court said it was conscious of the misery the weaker sections of the society faced on account of continuing lottery in any form.

It cannot be said that the Government had done away with the misery by banning lottery through the impugned notification. ''Ours is a welfare State. And the State has to ponder over this miserable issue and take steps that are necessary to achieve the object at the cost of revenue loss.'' UNI XR GD SHB KN1930